Lonely Night
by rock x crazii 342
Summary: When Edward leaves one night after Bella gets mad at him, and Alice goes missing as well, and Bella has no idea what's going on, she realizes everything won't be fixed in just one night. Rated T to be safe.
1. Chap 1: Visions

I sat back on my heels and glanced up at the sky.

"What are you thinking about?" Edward asked me. He was lying back on his elbows, looking up at the sky, too.

I sighed and settled back into a sitting position on the soft grass. We were back in our clearing—our spot—like we had been doing for the past long time. It always seemed to give me a sense of peace, like I was totally safe there, alone with Edward, sealed off from the rest of the world.

That day, it wasn't working. "Uh…nothing." I positioned my gaze opposite of where Edward was, so he couldn't trick me into telling him.

He was suddenly by my side. "Bellaa!" He whined. My little tricks weren't working. He leaned closer until he was breathing on my ear. I was losing. Losing…

"Fine." I snapped, abruptly turning to him. He didn't start or even flinch. He just stayed in that proximity, staring intently into my eyes. I blinked and looked down. "I was just thinking…."

He finally backed off a little. "Yes? What were you thinking?" He coaxed.

"I want to be a vampire, Edward!" The words came out like a blur, rushing one after another. If I had been listening to myself, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to understand it.

But apparently vampires have a way with things, because his expression immediately grew sad, longing, and angry, and then just defeated. No, never defeated. Closed off. He backed away some more. "We've had this discussion before, Bella. I'm not going to curse you to the same fate as me."

"But I _want_ to!" My vision was suddenly blurry. We had been through this a hundred times, and I had never turned on the waterworks before. What were they doing today?

Edward gave a low, animalistic growl. "_No_, Bella. And that's final."

I narrowed my eyes at him, willing the tears to go away. "Edward Cullen, if you don't agree to turn me into a vampire before I turn into a wrinkly old bat, I will go ask Alice and she _will_ agree." I waited intently for his answer, his big blowup, that flash of rage in his eye, but it never came. It never came because I suddenly realized my words—a wrinkly old _bat_—and that struck me as astoundingly funny. And suddenly I was rolling around in the grass, laughing like a maniac.

I was swooshed up in a swift movement and then I was traveling fast, too fast. I squeezed my eyes shut, and my headache worsened. And then, suddenly, it stopped.

I knew that feeling all too well. I looked up, and there was Edward, wrinkling his eyebrow at me. I felt his strong arms underneath me.

"Fine." I pouted. "Don't laugh at my jokes, and don't turn me into a vampire. But I have to go to Port Angeles today with Alice. _Today_, Edward."

Edward sighed. "Fine." He put me down, and I realized we were at the car. He had run me to the car. That smart, conniving, wonderful, stupid little—

I quickly calmed my thoughts, and, still a little wobbly from those runs, which I would never, ever get used to, opened the passenger door of Edward's Volvo.

We barely talked in the car. Edward asked me trivial things, probably hoping to lighten the mood. I was still smarting; why did he have to treat me like I was five years old? It was _my_ life, and _my_ decision! He had no right to stop me!

It was so unfair that I needed his bite to seal my fate.

We were back at the Cullen's house with an hour to spare, but I didn't feel like spending that time with Edward, contrary to what I had been feeling the whole summer. It was mid-July now, and every day my birthday loomed closer and closer. Every day I begged more and more for Edward to change me before—before—

Before I turned eighteen.

I found Alice in her room, rearranging. "Hi," I said, walking in. I had managed to lose Edward after I had gotten out of the car; or maybe he had just realized that I really didn't want to be with him right then.

"Hey." Alice seemed surprised. "Where's Edward?"

I was suddenly slightly annoyed that everyone seemed to know me by Edward and Edward by me. Did we _always_ have to do _everything_ together? Apparently people found it weird if we didn't. "I don't know." I finally told her, and left it at that.

"Oh, okay." Luckily, Alice was the kind of person who just let it go. Or maybe she already had a vision about it. I had no idea. "Well, do you want to head to Port Angeles a little early? We can get in some extra shopping, and then you can eat there. Maybe we can stop by that bookstore you had been looking for, too." She winked at me.

I laughed. It was still a slightly painful memory, but it didn't really bother me anymore; not now, not when I had Edward to watch over me.

Edward. I was missing him already.

"We can leave in a half hour," I told her. "If that's okay. I just want to say goodbye to Edward?"

Alice giggled. "That's what I thought."

"Edward!" I called, running down the stairs. I was eager to see him now; I _needed_ to see him now. "Edward!"

I half expected to see him at the grand piano, but I hadn't heard any music, so it wasn't a huge shock that he wasn't there.

"Edward!" I yelled a little louder, heading outside, into the backyard. That was weird. He should have heard me call; he always heard me call. He was usually by my side before I had even fully gotten his name out.

Slightly alarmed, I spun around and headed back inside, calling Edward's name more frantically. Where could he have gone? Maybe hunting? But why would he leave so abruptly?

The sensible half – er, quarter. Fourth? – of my brain told me there was a reasonable explanation. He was overcome by hunger, and he needed to satisfy himself before he came near me? Maybe he was hearing my calls right then, and he was grieving that he couldn't come.

Or maybe I was just a star-crossed little girl who thought someone was more in love with her than he really was.

I took the steps two at a time on my way back upstairs. I peeked into Edward's room, but he wasn't there. Of course. If he were there, he would have heard me.

Alice's room door was open. I nearly ran inside, starting to say, "Edward's not answering me!" But it came out more like "Edward—"

I cut myself off and shut myself up. Alice was sitting on the floor, staring at a blank wall, unblinking. Her eyes were a light golden color, so I felt no alarm as I approached her. The only panic I felt was at her behavior; she was sitting so, so still, and that ghastly look on her face; it was like something was terribly wrong, but she didn't want to come to terms with it, so she pasted a vacant look on her pretty face and left it at that.

Vacant. That was it. She looked like a house with nobody home.

"Alice?" I whispered, slightly afraid to break her reverie. I began to lower my fingers toward her face, ever so gently.

When she twitched, I very nearly jumped backwards, and ended up tripping over myself and tipping over from being so off-balance. Either way, I crashed onto the floor with a loud noise, which must have woken Alice up.

"Bella!" She said, and blinked. She looked confused, and then dreadful, and then confused again. "What happened?"

"Me," I muttered, getting up and dusting myself off. "_I_ happened. Now what just happened to you? You looked like…I don't know. Like you were in a trance."

"Oh." Alice's voice grew soft. "Are you ready to go to Port?"

I recognized her subtle subject-change, for she was still speaking in that soft voice, which so easily tricked people (namely, me) into thinking we had been talking about something the entire time. But it wasn't going to work, not with me today. "You had a vision." I finally said. "What is it? And why is it so bad?"

Alice shook her head.

"And why aren't you telling me?" I realized that my voice was getting higher and squeakier with each question, but I had no energy to waste on keeping it normal. I was still slightly unnerved from not being able to find Edward, and when that reality crashed back onto me (I had frankly forgotten about him for a few minutes) I nearly fell over again from the sheer expanse of it all.

"Really, Bella, we should go." She glanced at a clock hanging on her wall to emphasize her point. When I refused to stop glaring, she sighed. "Okay. We'll talk in the car. Okay?"

I finally agreed, and we made it into her glossy red convertible without incident (uh, okay. So I nearly fell over a tree branch, if Alice hadn't caught me. But still).

I waited till we had backed out of the driveway and Alice was driving along at breakneck speeds to broach the subject again. "Alice?" I asked, carefully. She turned to look at me, and I could see in her eyes she didn't want to have this conversation. But I was aching for Edward, and I had a bad feeling that her vision had something to do with him. I decided to go that route, since it was doubtful that I could get her to cough up the whole thing. "Did it have to do with Edward?"

When Alice shook her head, I grew more puzzled than ever. "Um, okay. Who does it have to do with, then?"

Alice pursed her lips and shook her head.

I sighed. "All right. Does it have to do with me?"

Alice hesitated. She was staring straight ahead. She refused to look at me.

"Alice," I whispered. "Does it have to do with me?"


	2. Chap 2: Girls Day Gone Bad

I guess that it never really bothered me when I was in danger. That was what unnerved Edward the most about me, probably—I felt no fear in his presence. I felt no fear around his family, who had the ability at any moment to suck me dry. Maybe it was because I trusted them enough, or maybe it was just because I was too naive to realize it was _real_ danger, for my _real_ life.

What I really feared the most was losing Edward. So maybe when I heard that the vision had nothing to do with Edward, and everything to do with me, I was slightly alarmed, but way more relieved than I should have been.

I think Alice sensed this, and it frightened her. Or, maybe not frightened; but _worried_.

And frankly, that made me feel bad. Because once again, the Cullens were going to go out of their way to accommodate a little breakable girl that really had no business in their lives.

We didn't discuss it again, through the whole Port Angeles trip. We shopped at this cute little store called Lacey's, which was like a boutique. Alice dragged me there, and at first I refused to try anything on; I didn't want her to go crazy spending money on me again (another reason I was dreading my birthday). But once again, I was bullied into it, and we exited the store with, in fact, a shopping bag full of clothes for both her and me.

By the time we were done with all the department stores and other little clothing shops like Lacey's, our hands were laden down with shopping bags. I tried to consolidate by stuffing littler bags into the bigger ones, but the big ones were already packed so full that it was hard. I blamed it all on fruitless shopping, but Alice insisted that she wanted to keep spending money…on me.

Which only raised my guilt measure about, oh, seventy-five percent higher.

We had fun, though. We were walking around the corner to see the next row of shops, and I practically ran into a metal post, the kind that holds up crosswalk symbols. Alice had to literally pull my shirt back to keep me from banging my head.

We were both laughing so hard after that, we could barely walk straight. Not that, you know, that was any different from my normal skills. Or perhaps I was a threat to pedestrians because of it. But either way, somehow or another, we were laughing practically the whole day.

The final, melting touch came when Alice suggested we get manicures, pedicures, and facials. She, of course, didn't need any of it, but she admonished that a person could never be too pampered.

I have no idea how she got me to agree to it. I was dead set against the idea, especially the part where she spent even _more_ money on my sorry self. But then she launched into the whole, "I thought we were friends, we were having such a good time! Don't ruin it, Bella!" And she sent me on this horrible guilt trip. Guess where we finally ended up?

Right. The most expensive beauty parlor in the entire town.

When we had been ushered inside and then finally put onto our seats for our manicures and pedicures and facials, I decided I would just submit. Admit defeat. Close the complaints. Put up my white flag. Surrender.

I leaned back in my seat, making myself comfortable. I think Alice was supremely pleased when I shut my trap about her always doing things for me and me never repaying her, but when I felt that massage on my feet, and my hands, and my face; well, I slightly changed my mind, then. It felt really nice. I felt everything just wash away with that warm soapy water.

They spent nearly two hours on everything; they were a very thorough place. The ladies were all nicely made up. To me they looked like Barbie dolls, with those fake, plastic smiles and fake, plastic hair. They all wore so much makeup, I wondered how long a trail it would leave if it all ran down their face and dripped as they walked. I spoke in whispers with Alice, and she giggled; by the time we were done, our estimate was about three miles.

There were no noticeable differences when I looked in the mirror the lady gave me, after the facial. I had already checked my feet, and they just looked cleaner; same with my hands, which I was horrified to find had nail polish on them. Alice had so considerately picked blue instead of pink, but seriously! I _knew_ they were trying to hide something when they put those slices of cucumber over my eyes. Either way, I looked entirely the same. I didn't suddenly grow beautiful like Alice, and in that way, I decided that manicures, pedicures, and facials were in fact and truly a waste of time.

At least I had gotten _something_ out of it when we emerged from the parlor. My cuticles were healthier.

After that, Alice and I drove around in her convertible, looking for a good restaurant to eat at. I considered going back to the one Edward and I had gone to; the food had been good; but then I decided that I wanted to try something new. Besides, it was nice to have one more place that was just Edward's and mine.

We finally came to a small Mexican restaurant near the outskirts of town. It looked pretty formal, but it was understated. Inside, there were dim-like lights and darkish wallpaper.

I couldn't stay there. Not with that terribly romantic atmosphere, and Edward still nowhere to be found. Edward… he seeped back into my brain like some treacherous nightmare, threatening to swallow me whole if I didn't turn my mind to other things, and quickly.

Frankly, I was extremely surprised that I had gone almost the whole day without thinking about him. Maybe vampires were like that—they needed one human mind all to themselves. Or maybe I was just saving myself the pain.

Either way, I made a beeline out of the place, and Alice followed, looking confused. I shook my head and, suddenly ravenous, told her to pick a nice, family-style restaurant and on the double.

She obliged, and I found myself at a TGI Friday's. Ah. How nice. Feeling safer, having found some sort of small comfort zone, I jumped out of the car and went to get a table while Alice found parking.

There was a tall girl, dressed in all black, with a platinum-blonde ponytail, standing at the counter. "A table for two, please," I told her.

"Smoking or non?" The girl asked, sounding extremely bored. Her eyes wandered. I couldn't help but wonder if she would be so distant if Edward were with me.

"Non, please."

"That'll be about twenty minutes. Name?"

"Swan. S-W-A-N."

"Okay."

I went to take a seat by the bench, waiting for Alice. The clock ticked by; I hadn't realized how late it had gotten. It was almost eight; no wonder I was so hungry. I hadn't eaten since before we had gotten to Port Angeles.

Eight o'clock struck, and passed. And still, I waited for Alice.

I wondered what could possibly be taking so long, but then decided that she was just having trouble parking. The place _was_ pretty packed. The din was so great that I could barely hear myself think. Or maybe she couldn't find me in the huge crowd of people waiting for their tables; I _was_ sitting down. I immediately stood up, wishing I had hair like that hostess so it would glow in the darkened atmosphere.

At eight-ten, I checked our wait once again ten minutes this time and then stepped outside into the now brisk air.

I scanned the lot for Alice's car. It shouldn't be hard to find; her car was probably the glossiest within a hundred-mile radius. Or at least the most expensive.

After walking up and down the rows of cars, I finally found hers; it was near the back, in the third to left row. And there she was, in the driver's seat, her head pressed back against her headrest, her eyes closed.

"Alice?" I whispered, knocking on the driver's side window. Her position was scaring me. It looked like she was passed out, or sleeping; but I knew she couldn't be either. What was wrong? A million possibilities rushed through my head, but most of them were ruled out because they were human, not vampire. Although at that point, my brain wasn't really functioning to the point of being able to rule things out.

I yelled Alice's name a little louder when she didn't stir, and knocked harder and more frantically. I was aware that I was acting psychopathic, probably looking like a mental escapee to anyone passing by, but at the moment that wasn't really my top priority.

Alice's eyes finally popped open, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming and plant my feet firmer to keep from jumping backwards into the car next to hers. However, the action didn't really work out; I took a sort of half-jump and then stamped firmly down, but teetered and wobbled for a while until I finally straightened back up.

Alice's eyes were still glowing red. They glowed for five more seconds, and then they turned back into the topaz that they had been all day.

I backed up towards the back of the car so she could open the door, and I had half a mind to turn and run. But honestly, I was too curious. Curiosity killed the cat—or the Bella.

"Go eat," Alice told me in a rough voice. She seemed unfocused, still dazed. "Emmett will come pick you up in a while." She thrust her credit card at me. "You can sign for me."

I stared blankly at her for a second. That was it? No explanation? "Hey, wait!" I started as she began to get back into her comfortable driving position. "Where are _you_ going?" I laid an accusing hand on the door, so she couldn't close it without smashing my hand (not that that would be such a difficult feat for her to do…but she might break the car in the process).

Please don't ask me where all this courage came from. I really do wonder myself. There was a full-grown, fully real vampire who could easily suck my blood at any second, and her eyes at just glowed red, and I had absolutely no idea what that meant, except that red somehow was never the color of the good guys. And I had just basically given her a good reason to kill me.

"I really need to go." Alice's voice was practically monotone, but I could hear the undercurrent of danger. It reminded me slightly of James's voice, and I shivered. She took that moment to quickly slip my hand off the door and shut it, before I even knew what was happening.

I would have definitely fallen from the sudden lack of support (I had, so dumbly, been leaning some of my weight on the door), but someone stopped me from hitting the ground and pulled me back up.

I turned, expecting to see Edward; my heart swelled and skipped a beat.

And then abruptly fell out onto the pavement where Alice's wheels quickly ran it over.

"Carlisle?" I wondered aloud. This was getting so strange. Hadn't Alice said Emmett was going to pick me up?

Carlisle was there, and suddenly so was Esme.

When Esme spoke, there was a soft danger in her voice, slightly like Alice's. It told me that I should absolutely not disobey her. Not that her commands were that hard. "We will go eat."

Our table was ready at Friday's. Luckily they had given us a four-person table, so there was enough room for three. They brought us an extra place setting, but only I ordered food.

"What's going on?" I finally asked when I had my Coke. I sipped on it slightly, and glanced from Carlisle to Esme and back. My stomach growled, and I considered punching it to make it shut up.

Esme seemed slightly amused by my misbehaving tummy and I, but her face was still grim and drawn. "When was the last time you saw Edward?"

I thought for a minute. "Um, this morning, why?"

"Have you two had a disagreement?" Carlisle wanted to know.

Uh-oh. I busied myself with eating my chicken fingers, which had just arrived. When I glanced back up, they were still both staring at me, hard. I looked away. They sure weren't helping. "I don't know." I finally told them. "I mean…." My wants suddenly seemed so childish and stupid. I felt my cheeks go red as I tried to stare at a point above both of their heads.

Esme took my hand. "Bella." She told me, sternly but gently. "You have to tell us this. It is important."

I felt the words come rushing out again. "I wanted to be a vampire and he wouldn't let me!" I cried, and then stared down at my food. It didn't look so appealing anymore. My stomach was suddenly churning. "What's happened to him?" I looked up at them.

They exchanged a look. "You'll be spending the night with us, Bella," Esme told me. That was the second time they had completely ignored me.

"Emmett and Jasper are going to be there, so you'll be safe," Carlisle added. "You can take Edward's room. The couch in there will work nicely."

The sound of being close to anything Edward instantly perked me up. I almost forgot that he wouldn't _actually_ be there. And I almost forgot to ask why I would be sleeping at the Cullen's. I remembered as I was handing the waitress the check with the credit card. "Why do I have to stay with you guys tonight?" I asked them, and watched their faces grow tight again.

"It's complicated," Carlisle finally told me. "But believe me, you'll be much better off.


	3. Chap 3: Cabins and Visitors

**Thanks bluemoon-175, vamptastic, and MoonShineMystery! You guys are awesome! Keep reviewing, please:)**

**Sorry I forgot the disclaimer… so…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, or Twilight's characters. All I own is my plot.**

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The Cullen's house was completely dark when I entered it. I felt my stomach lurch as I once again saw the empty piano bench.

I hadn't seen Alice again all night. I had no idea where she was, except that she definitely wasn't home; her car wasn't parked out front. I had asked Carlisle and Esme once about her strange behavior, and where she was, but they had once again eluded an answer.

I had the weirdest feeling that this wasn't some normal danger; or at least whatever 'normal' was, for vampires and me. Or maybe nothing was typical, but this was just even worse than whatever they were expecting. Because either way, they usually didn't keep secrets from me.

All right, fine. They always kept secrets from me. But still. If it had to do with my life, I felt that they should at least inform me.

Up the stairs. Into Edward's room. I felt like I was in a trance as I laid down on the couch, tried to snuggle in and breathe in Edward's heavenly smell. It was faint, but it lingered; and soon I had fallen into my dreams, the ones where Edward was there with me.

I woke up to the wind whooshing past and a terrible, pounding headache. I looked up and nearly screamed.

Emmett looked down at me, tight-lipped. He attempted a smile when he saw that I was awake, but it didn't seem to fit on his currently solemn face. "Hello, Bella."

Confused, I just smiled weakly back. And then I realized the source of my headache, and I did let out a scream this time.

Emmett stopped running. "All right, all right. Calm down. I'm starting again, okay?"

"No!" I started to say, but he didn't listen. We were off again. I forced my eyes open and saw that we were rushing through some sort of forest, but I definitely didn't recognize it. It looked like we were well out of Forks already, though I couldn't be totally sure. "Where are we?" I finally asked.

Emmett shook his head.

I was frankly getting sick of all the secrecy. I wanted to know what had happened to Edward and Alice! I had a feeling that I had been alone last night in the Cullen house, but what I didn't understand was where everyone had been. If I was in so much danger, shouldn't they at least keep watch on me?

"If it makes you feel any better," Emmett suddenly said, hesitantly, "Alice's vision isn't really about you. She made a mistake."

I felt like my heart had been sucked out of my ribs. Or maybe stuffed up my throat, because I could barely breathe, barely talk. "Who…is…it…?" I finally choked out, my voice raspy and unrecognizable.

Emmett seemed surprised by my reaction. He had probably expected that I be happy. But how could I be happy, when….

He didn't answer me.

When we stopped, I was almost afraid to look away from Emmett's face, for reasons that I didn't know. I concluded that I was silly and stupid, especially when I finally stepped down from his bulky arms and realized I was at a quaint little cottage, with a brick chimney and white roof and wraparound veranda, which looked like it sat in the middle of nowhere, surrounded on all sides by forest.

"Nobody knows about this place, outside of our family," Emmett warned me. "So don't mention it to anyone."

Even if I did mention it to someone, the cottage would be in no danger. I had absolutely no idea how to get there, or even where it was.

"You'll be staying here for a while," Emmett announced as we walked at a human pace towards the front door. Emmett had stopped running in the middle of the good-sized field that was in front of the house, fringed by woods. "Esme packed some clothes for you, they're on the bed in the main bedroom. Someone will come check on you every once in a while."

My cheeks burned as I stumbled on the front steps of the porch, and then more as I realized I had to ask him a question that would, pretty much, put a big red exclamation point at the end of "she's human". "Is there food?"

Emmett actually laughed. "The fridge and pantry are stocked. Esme went on a grocery spree."

With a pang I realized that Alice would probably have been the one who went food shopping, or any shopping, for me. Where was she, and what had happened?

Suddenly, Emmett looked serious. "Whatever you do, Bella, do not watch the television."

Oh, wow. There went my hours of entertainment. "Why not?" I asked stubbornly.

"Because" here he stopped to catch me where I had tripped over the doorframe. "Just don't. Carlisle wants you to be totally safe."

"From the TV?" I asked incredulously. "What's it going to do, eat me?"

Emmett sighed. "Bella, please."

I huffed. "All right, all right. But what else am I supposed to do?"

Emmett shrugged. "I think there's a computer. With high-speed internet." He winked. "I have to go now. Jasper and Rosalie will come by later to check on you, and Esme's nearby if you need her." He didn't mention Carlisle, and I didn't prod.

Two days later, and all I had done was surf the net and eat. True to their word, various members of the Cullen family had come to check up on me, mostly around mealtimes. Nobody mentioned Edward or Alice, and they didn't make any appearances.

It was night number two, and I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself. I was sitting on the couch, staring into space, when I heard a slight tap. I froze, stayed completely still. I barely let myself breathe.

The Cullens hadn't briefed me on whatever I was supposed to be hiding from, so how was I supposed to know that whatever was out there wasn't going to, say, bite me?

The tapping grew more insistent, but no louder. I finally got up, careful not to make the couch squeak, and tiptoed across the kitchen to the back door. I held my breath as I looked outside. I couldn't see; just a dark outline. I was pretty sure it was a person, but I couldn't tell if they were holding a knife or anything.

Against all my better judgment, I opened the door slowly. I had absolutely no defense skills, and I would probably tip over as soon as the enemy blew on me. But still;

Still, what? _You are such a moron_, I told myself. _Don't open that door_. But it was too late. The door was already open, and I was ready to flee.

An arm caught mine, and I screamed. The skin was pale, milky-white, and I screamed even harder; was this James, come back to haunt me? Or was it some other, completely unknown, vampire, come to suck my blood?

I tried to kick them and step backwards, but in doing so I lost my balance and fell against them. The vampire had on a dark cloak, and the hood was shading their features so I couldn't tell who it was.

The hand was still clutching my arm. I stumbled backwards into the kitchen area, and landed hard against a counter. It jabbed into my back, and I tried to scream again, but my voice was already hoarse.

And besides, the vampire had lifted their other arm and clasped it over my mouth. "You're a touchy-feely sort," I mumbled into the vampire's palm.

The vampire pulled me into the family room, where they sat me down on the couch and finally released me.

To my, and I'm pretty sure the vampire's, immense surprise, I didn't try to run again. I just sat there, shock-still, praying that someone was going to come check on me soon.

Yeah, right. Rosalie had just left about fifteen minutes before the vampire arrived.

And then, with me sitting there, staring straight ahead and trying not to panic, the vampire faced me and shrugged out of their hood.

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**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but I'm still not completely finished with the plot, so I'm just putting something out until I figure everything out. Ideas are welcome!**


	4. Chap 4: Reunion

**Thanks to all my reviewers! You all are so awesome and, well, nice!**

**Angelalways17- All right, I'm going to try to answer your questions. The unknown vampire grabbed Bella—she doesn't know who it is yet. Sorry about the cliffhanger ending. I haven't actually specified what's up with Alice, that's to come later. And Bella doesn't know where Edward is. Hope that helps!**

**And thanks for the help, MoonShineMystery…it worked!**

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I was so startled that I practically fell over. And then I screamed some more, until my throat felt like jagged rocks.

And then I bowled that vampire over.

"Edward!" I cried. I threw my arms around him, and he fell backwards on the couch. "Edward!"

Edward was smiling. "Bella!" He said.

"Where have you _been_?" I demanded. "I've missed you so much! And why did you come like—"

He kissed me lightly. "I'm sorry, Bella. If I could have it any other way, I…." He stopped himself, and kissed me again.

I didn't feel like delving into the mystery again. All I wanted was to just spend time with my Edward, whom I hadn't seen in about three days. It had felt like an eternity.

I snuggled closer to him, pressing my cheek against his chest. He was wearing a sweater, and it was soft and clung to him. I could imagine his cold, sculpted chest underneath, and I shivered at the thought.

He hugged me closer. "I've missed you too, Bella. You have no idea how much."

I sighed and pulled back slightly from him. He looked hurt. "Okay, listen. I—"

He silenced me with another kiss.

"Okay, fine. If that's the way it's going to—" I stopped talking again when he pressed his marble lips to my throat.

I gave up on trying to get two words in, and let him kiss me for a few more minutes. Then I sat back. "Okay, Edward. I have some questions."

He pulled me closer and groaned. "Please, Bella. Not—"

This time, I cut him off. "Yes. Where have you been? And what the heck is going on? Where's Alice?"

Edward looked confused. "Alice? Why? Is something not well with Alice?"

It had never occurred to me that Alice and Edward might not be connected. I backtracked. "Oh, oh, nothing. But where were you? And why are you sneaking around in the middle of the night?"

He gave me another peck on the lips, and then he disappeared into the kitchen. He returned with a Coke for me. "Drink this," He ordered.

I rolled my eyes. "You're very good at not answering my questions," I announced, but he pretended like he hadn't heard.

Around midnight, I started to feel tired. "Stay with me tonight, please?" I had asked him. I was so used to falling asleep in his arms.

"I must go," He finally told me, after staring intently for a second. "Do not tell anyone I was here." His gaze locked on mine.

I couldn't say no to those smoldering topaz eyes of his. "But—all right, fine. I won't tell. But why—?"

He kissed me again, cutting off my question. He looked at me for a long moment, and then said softly, "All right, my Bella. I will stay with you tonight."

I was surprised at his sudden change of mind, I'll tell you that. But I was also immensely pleased. I happily led the way into my bedroom.

I curled into his arms, with the assurance of sweet dreams.

When I awoke, sunlight was streaming through the thin curtains at the window, and my bed was empty except for myself.

I got up and rubbed my eyes and tried not to cry as I trudged towards the kitchen to make myself some coffee. They really had stocked up—the kitchen was full of everything and anything I would ever need, including coffee and a coffeemaker.

My black coffee wasn't strong enough. A flood of questions hit me as I sat at the kitchen counter—the first, and most important, being, why had Edward shown up in the middle of the night, wearing a cloak, knocking at my back door? And why did he not want anyone to know he was here?

I sincerely hoped this was all a bad dream, but I was too afraid of it being true to pinch myself.

I also had a very bad thought—that it was all a silly dream of mine, and Edward had never come. I licked my lips as I thought about it. I finally decided it didn't matter; I could live in those few minutes that, even if I had dreamed, seemed real enough.

My mind turned back to other, more complicated issues.

In a way, this was worse than the James dilemma. Here, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. There were so many unanswered questions; like where was Alice, why was Edward hiding, why Alice's eyes had glowed red, why I was being shut up in a cottage in the middle of nowhere with instructions to not watch the TV.

Maybe a little net surfing would help clear my mind. My mind had another idea, when I logged on, though; maybe it was because of the fact that I felt so cut off from society. It didn't really bother me, but my subconscious mind led me to where I scrolled through stories about Lebanon and Israel and Iraq.

I clicked through links that seemed unusual; not that I needed any more excitement. There was a link for Offbeat stories, and a little amusement couldn't hurt.

Ahem. Yes it could. I almost fell off my chair for the second time in less than twelve hours.

The chair teetered, and I had to lean all my weight towards the desk to keep from tumbling away. Ten seconds later, everything was balanced again, thankfully without any serious spills.

I dared a glance back at the computer screen, which seemed to be mocking me with its big, shiny glare. Look! It screamed. Look at me!

There was a huge photograph of Edward plastered on the Offbeat page of CNN dot com.

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**A/N: Sorry again for the short chapter, but I'm just writing stuff as I get new ideas. Do you all like where I'm taking this? I'm not really sure about how the Edward part is going to go… reviews, please. And ideas are welcome.**


	5. Chap 5: Reverse Reality

**Thanks again to all my reviewers. And I'm extremely sorry for the confusion! I reread and I'm going to clear up some questions in this chapter. Keep reviewing! **

I didn't get to figure out why Edward's picture was on although I had a seriously scary hunch. Another knocking came at the door.

This time, I fearlessly opened it; I figured it must be Edward again. It wasn't. It was Alice.

Her gaze instantly went from my face to the computer and back. "Oh, no!" She moaned, and ran to the computer and grabbed it, leaning backwards so all the cords unplugged. The monitor went dark.

"What are you doing?" I fairly shouted at her.

When she turned to look at me, there was something in her eye that told me maybe I should back off and not mess.

"Fine," I told her shortly. "Don't tell me why you did that, and don't tell me why Edward's face is on CNN. But you at least have to tell me where you've been."

Alice looked pained as she once again turned around to face me. She set her legs and squared her shoulders. "All right, Bella. But first you need to understand something. _Edward is dead to us_."

My mouth hit the floor.

Her tone was so venomous, that I was pretty sure she wasn't joking. And besides, why would she possibly be joking? Edward is dead to us…. That could definitely mean something different. Like, maybe they thought Edward was dead, right?

Right?

I stared at the floor as I felt Alice's gaze on me. What was I supposed to say? _He was here last night_. But this meant…

Tears had been coming unnaturally fast recently, especially in the area of _Edward_. I angrily brushed away the first tear, and thankfully held back the rest.

I noticed Alice's posture soften, though, when she saw that. Hmm. Maybe I could work this to my advantage. I slowly looked back up at her, carefully putting on my best puppy-dog look. I tried to make my eyes wide and innocent, and my mouth curving downward.

Alice sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, Bella. I'm really sorry. But I need to take you somewhere else. I think Edward knows where you are, and I'm sorry, but it just isn't safe anymore."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to shout. I wanted to kick and pull my hair and stomp and cry. Why were they taking Edward away from me? WHY? "I don't want to leave!" I yelled at her, and turned and raced to my bedroom door, shutting and locking it behind me.

I think that she was so surprised by my actions that she didn't even try to come after me, though she could've definitely made it to my door before me and blocked the way. To tell the truth, _I_ was surprised by my actions. I blamed it on my stormy brain, stormy thoughts, and sank onto my bed with a sigh of relief.

Sleep came, and went. I awoke once when the sun was fully out, and then once more just as it was slanting away. As much as I tried, I couldn't sleep anymore, and I finally stepped outside to get something to eat.

As I approached the kitchen, I realized how ravenous I really was. And then I realized that Alice wasn't there anymore. Whatever. If she wasn't there, that meant that she couldn't take me away. And if I stayed at the cottage, maybe Edward would come.

I still couldn't comprehend what Alice had told me. Edward…the bad guy? What could he possibly have done? And I wanted to know, so bad, why his face had been on CNN. Could that have been it?

A light bulb went off. So _that_ was why Carlisle wanted me to not watch TV. He probably didn't want me watching the news, because he didn't want me to see my sweetheart in the headlines. But why had they given me an all-access computer? Maybe they had forgotten.

Alice sure had made her point and made sure I couldn't cross it. She had ripped the cords out of the computer, and I had absolutely no idea how to fix it, which she probably knew. The TV was all unplugged as well, and besides I couldn't move the TV cabinet and get behind it because it was too heavy.

So now what? I was locked up in a cell? It wasn't like I could run, either; I had absolutely no idea where I was, and for all I knew, the forest could stretch on for miles in all directions.

Right. And Edward was the bad guy.

I was going to have a word with whoever came to check on me next. In the meantime, I busied myself with making a sandwich out of some fixings I had found in the refrigerator.

I was chewing the last bite of my sandwich, poised with my hand on my milk glass, when someone busted through the back door.

Practically choking on my sandwich, I tried to scream, but to no avail; the bread just got stuck further down my throat. In a fruitless effort to unstuck it, I poured the rest of my milk into my mouth.

Bad, bad idea. A terrible retching feeling began beneath my throat, and I had to run to the sink so I didn't spit it out all over the clean floor.

When I was done with that, I whirled around with my hands protectively on the counter behind me, ready to grab a knife.

"Bella, grab your things," Carlisle told me sternly, ignoring my battle pose.

I gaped at him. Oh, no way. "Why?"

"We're leaving. Get your things. I'll explain on the way."

"You better," I muttered under my breath as I _slowly_ walked towards my bedroom. I knew I had no chance of winning an argument, because he could just grab my wrist and he would have me deadlocked. I could bite his head off on the ride to wherever we were going.

To my surprise, when we got outside, there was a shiny silver car waiting there. I didn't have time to check the model or company, because Carlisle immediately dumped me in and threw himself in the other side.

There was a road on one side of the cottage, smartly concealed by some overgrown bushes.

As we zoomed down it, I turned to look at Carlisle. "All right, enough with this crap. I can take it. I'm not squeamish."

Carlisle's smile was almost a smirk, and his eyes held a mischievous glint. "Oh?" Was all he said, and my cheeks flamed as I thought about how I had nearly choked on my sandwich.

I shook it away. "This isn't funny. I want to know what's happening!"

Carlisle sighed deeply. "Have either Alice or Edward seen you since you went to the cottage?" He asked me.

I looked out the window to buy time. What was I supposed to say? I decided that I couldn't keep anything from him anyways, and it might be serious. "Both." I told him.

Carlisle nodded. "That's what I thought. Don't listen to either of them, do you understand?" He looked over at me to make sure. I nodded, and he continued. "Alice is angry with Edward. She refuses to even speak with him. She has practically disowned him, because of a stupid thing he did the day you went to Port Angeles with Alice. Maybe it was because he didn't know what to do with himself; maybe we'll never know. None of us has seen him since then, but I'm not surprised he visited you." He glanced over at me.

I could hardly take this all in. It was so hard to absorb! Edward did something incredibly stupid, the result of which was probably the fact that there was a huge picture of him on CNN? It was also the reason I was shut up at the cottage without technology, probably. And Alice wouldn't even talk to him? That was so unlike either of them.

"I know what you're probably thinking," Carlisle said. "Edward wouldn't do something stupid, and Alice isn't the kind to get so angry for so long. Do you remember that night of Port Angeles, when Alice's eyes turned red? We think, somehow, someone's controlling her; we're not even sure if that really is her. We don't know how it happened, or why, but it's strange. She told us about the vision she had, but it wasn't just a normal vision. Every time she tried to focus on it, she couldn't comprehend some little detail; she told us that it was like something changed, every time she tried to understand her vision. I'd never heard of something like this before, but I did some research, and…well…I'll show you when we get back to the house."

My head was spinning. There was a stupid buzzing sound in my ears. When Carlisle's voice stopped, I felt like I was going to crack; in a way, it had been soothing, through everything it had said.

_This is a dream. This is a dream_.

What was Carlisle trying to hint at? And…and….

I didn't even want to think about Edward. If I thought too much, it would hurt too much.

"When was the last time you saw Alice?" I suddenly asked him.

Carlisle glanced at me. "The same night. She's called us twice, though, but refused to tell us where she was. Either way, we've communicated enough with both of them to know that they're not on speaking terms and they've both made a mess."

I nodded, though I had absolutely no right to, since I didn't understand anything. "She visited me last night…or two nights ago." I told him. Had it really been two whole nights ago? That meant I had slept for almost a day and a half.

With another flash of brilliance, I realized that since Alice wasn't talking to her family on a regular basis, they probably didn't know that I had maybe seen the article about Edward. Maybe it would be better to play stupid.

"What did Edward do? I mean, what made Alice so mad?" I asked.

Carlisle clenched his teeth, and I realized that he, too, was a little mad at Edward, though he hadn't stopped speaking to Edward. His manner was forgiving; so was Alice's, usually. He nodded once, then said, "I will show you later."

Would he turn on the TV? Or show me on the Internet? Or maybe even throw a newspaper at me?

Either way, I was aching to know what Edward had done to screw things up so bad.

And I was aching for Edward.

I'll admit, I was hoping I could find something faulty in his mistake and maybe fix everything. I wasn't looking to be hero; I just wanted Edward back!

I was so involved in my thoughts that when the car stopped and I automatically opened the door, I almost tripped over the car as I opened the door, and nearly fell flat on my face.

Luckily, vampires have insane speed, and the ground was replaced by Carlisle.

I followed him inside, where he led me to the TV. "Watch," He ordered, and switched it on.

The weatherman was on. He finished his five-day forecast, and then a dolled-up lady named Liz Schmidt talked about business, lots of fancy words that I didn't understand.

A lady named Meri Banks was on next. "And now, in more unusual news." She smiled her brilliant, megawatt smile, and proceeded to basically deliver my most torturous nightmare. "A seventeen-year-old boy named Edward Cullen was recently found to have a remarkable ability; he is unable to be hurt. Four days ago, he jumped in front of a car, and was struck head-on. The driver of the car, forty-one-year-old Margaret Hennings, claimed that "he seemed to just appear" and she "definitely did not see him coming." She said that she almost didn't really believe he was there, because he had simply appeared there so quickly. She hit him full on, and immediately called 9-1-1. She waited for them to go look for him, praying that she had not hurt him. They found him, however, and he had no bruises or injuries, which is, we can say, a miracle. It has probably never happened before. He consented to jump off a cliff, and he was provided with a parachute. He didn't use it, however, and when they found him at the bottom, he was, again, unharmed. They're running tests on him as we speak, and we'll provide you with more details as they come. And in other news, fifty-six-year-old…."


	6. Chap 6: Pens, Paper, and Defected Hearts

**I have a few questions from people about Edward's actions. Try to reread the end of chapter 4, especially what Carlisle says. Sorry about any confusion. Keep reviewing!**

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Carlisle switched off the TV.

I continued to stare at the black screen. I couldn't believe it! What in the world was Edward doing? I wanted, so bad, to stay on his side, but after this latest development, that seemed impossible.

Carlisle nodded shortly. "Hard to handle, isn't it? We didn't believe it at first. But that _is_ Edward, and I highly doubt anyone is making him undergo those tests. I don't know why he is doing that, and it's highly out of character for him, don't you agree?"

I nodded, my eyes still fixed on that screen.

"I have a feeling that it has something to do with Alice's vision, but we have no way of knowing the next time she'll contact us. We don't know where to look for her, either; she could be anywhere in the world, by now."

A deadening, sickly feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. I guess it had just sunk in the absolute enormity of the whole thing. I didn't think it was so, well, _important_ before.

But then again, I didn't know a lot of things before.

Carlisle shook his head. "I don't think we're going to leave you alone anymore."

I tilted my head. What?

"We can't really gauge Edward's and Alice's situations right now," he elaborated, though I still wasn't making very much sense of it. "They might try to visit you again, or even…well…we're not really sure. But it's all very dangerous, do you understand?" He looked at me meaningfully. "We're fairly certain something's drastically changed in them, or else they really aren't controlling themselves. In other words, we have no way of knowing what they'll do. We don't know if you're safe with either of them anymore. After all, Edward has, basically, just broadcasted his immortality to the entire nation. Or world, for that matter."

"I have a question," I said, letting Carlisle's words basically slip out my other ear. I wasn't in the mood for him to tell me that being with Edward wasn't safe. So what else was new? Right, the sky's still blue. "What was that research you wanted to show me?" It wasn't what I had been planning on asking, but it came out, anyways.

Carlisle nodded. "I was hoping you would ask." He headed up the stairs, and I figured I should follow.

I instantly felt better when I entered Carlisle's study, though I really had no idea why. I didn't expect to feel any comfort when I entered the Cullen's without Edward being there, but to my surprise, it still felt like home. Those paintings, the illustrations of Carlisle's history; the books, the desk. Everything. I actually felt that maybe, somehow, I somewhere fit into this.

I wasn't surprised when Carlisle handed me a writing tablet, yellow and lined; although he was a doctor and had to use lots of high-tech equipment, I had figured out he liked using old-fashioned things better. Such as a pen and paper.

Then he glanced at his barely decipherable handwriting, and grinned as he took it back. "Okay. So. Edward. He has disappeared for days on end, and suddenly did something extremely surprising and unusual for him. He also, I noticed, has short bursts of his own personality; for instance, he visited you. If he is being held in any way, he's fighting very hard to get past it." He frowned as he looked down at his paper. "I'm not certain, but this points pretty closely to what I feared the most." Here he laid down his pad and looked directly at me. His gaze was so intense that I had to look away. "It took me a long time, but I finally found something. It can only be performed by a company of more than six vampires, and it is done to force another vampire to do their bidding, without that vampire knowing what they are doing. It's a very old, very complicated kind of magic, and I'm afraid it's very scarce and very hard to break. It took me almost the full four days to finally come to some kind of conclusion, but that's as far as I got. There's no way for me to tell who's doing this, or why." He shook his head. "I'm completely baffled."

This was hard. I had never seen Carlisle so vulnerable—so unsure. He usually had all the answers, all the wisdom. I felt pretty scared and weak without his firm support. "What about Alice?" I managed to ask in a small voice.

Carlisle shook his head. "Many of the same symptoms," He gave a weak smile. "I'd like to call them something else, but I don't know what. Disappearing for days at a time, and we have idea where; she hasn't _done_ anything surprising, but she is acting much different from her normal self. I haven't seen any bouts of her own personality, though, although I couldn't be sure. I was thinking along the lines of if she became herself, she would contact us; and then there was the whole issue with her eyes." Carlisle shook his head hopelessly. "I'm pretty sure I've figured out Edward's predicament, but I couldn't find anything about Alice. It might be a variation of the same spell, or it might be something entirely different. Either way…." He shook his head. "All we can do is wait."

I had been listening in silence that whole time. But that's when I lost it. Understand, here; I hadn't been away from Edward for more than, say, a day at a time, ever since we, you know. But suddenly he was ripped from my side for practically four days straight, and then I was being told that he was the bad guy and I was to stay away from him.

I swear, we had some sort of magnetism going on. I wanted to race out the door—Carlisle's office wasn't comforting anymore. It was just locking me in. I wanted to burst out their front door and keep running, running, until I ran into my sweet Edward. Or a tree. But at least I could make an _effort_. I was being such a useless girlfriend.

"No!" I finally cried out. "We can't just _wait_! We have to go look for them!"

Carlisle stared at me, and his face melted into a sort of exasperated, defeated expression. It was confusing me, that _Carlisle_ could act like that. He had all the answers, all the time! "It's not that simple, Bella. If I knew where they were, if any of us did, we would go and try to get them out, in a heartbeat. But we have no way of knowing."

I was sick of not knowing, frankly. "Fine." I told him. I knew I was being harsh, but I had to take harsh steps if I ever wanted to see Edward again. I nodded curtly. "I understand if you don't want to come along, but I'm taking my pickup, which I noticed is somehow parked in your garage, and I'm going to find them."

What a foolish, hard-headed idiot I was. In that moment, I guess I actually believed I could single-handedly save them from a bunch of vampires who had probably been around longer than I could count and knew a bunch of crazy spells that I didn't even know existed. But I guess I really thought my less-than-perfect pickup and me could save the day.

I was almost out the front door when Carlisle appeared in front of me. His perfection seemed to jump out at me, taunt me, push me backwards. I angrily tried to get past him, but he, of course, didn't let me. "Listen, Bella! Listen to me! This is extremely silly. You could get seriously hurt."

I don't know why he tried to reason with me. He could have just hooked an arm around my waist and carried me to a chair and tied me up and gagged me. I mentioned this to him, and he just fixed his stare on me.

Guess who was the one to look away, again? Yeah, that's right. Me.

Esme appeared at the top of the stairs. It hadn't even occurred to me that someone else might be in the house. Her rolling beauty just added another brick to the wall that was knocking me down. Looking at her womanly air, I felt childish and insolent. I really had no business mouthing off to Carlisle; all he had ever done was protect me. And who was I, to think that I could do anything on my own? I could, after all, be blown to bits by just a squeeze too tight from them or a hit too hard.

"If you're going anywhere," Carlisle finally said, grimly, "We're coming with you." He nodded to Esme.

I nodded once, not allowing myself to speak, incase more stupid words came spilling out. I led the way to my truck, and luckily they didn't object. I didn't really care if they wanted a sleeker, shinier car. My truck was my safety zone.

Esme and Carlisle were in before me. I wasn't unnerved. I got into the driver's side, and listened satisfactorily as the engine literally roared to life. I grinned. Music to my ears.

I had no idea where I was going. I let myself ride on instincts. I was pretty scared; what if we ended up somewhere totally different, like the North Pole? I had nowhere to aim for. I chose roads randomly. I was supposed to be 'following my heart' but my heart was, apparently, forgetting to let me in on some things.

"Aren't you supposed to have some sort of radar for each other?" I asked as I took a random left turn. We had been driving fruitlessly for a half hour, and I was pretty sure I was just wasting gas. That field over on the right looked suspiciously like one we had passed a few minutes ago; then again, all the fields surrounding us at the moment looked more or less the same.

Carlisle and Esme exchanged glances, and I forgot to suppress my groan as I realized they were hiding more stuff from me. They both glanced briefly at me, and then Carlisle looked away while Esme talked. I was, frankly, glad for the change of voice, not that Carlisle's wasn't great or anything; it was just that I had been listening to him talk for a really, really long time. "We are supposed to," Esme told me. "Well, it's not fixed; we just sometimes know. We don't try to explain it. But now all I get are images. And they're wavering at the edges sometimes, and they keep changing. And somehow I know they're not real. I'm being blocked, misled by something."

So many emotions were welling up inside me, I half-wished Jasper was in the car so he could calm me down. I felt like everything was overflowing, bursting forth. It was so much, in so little time; it was just so hard to take in. I still sometimes had trouble believing that I actually associated with vampires, that I was actually in _love_ with a vampire, one who loved me back, one who actually glittered in the sun. And now—great—he was gone.

When I turned back into the Cullen's driveway, neither Carlisle nor Esme looked disappointed in me, like I had expected they would. We had gotten nowhere; my stupid heart wasn't leading me to my love.

Was it defected?

Probably, yes.

I silently opened my door and walked towards the house. Nobody said anything. I kept walking, opened the front door. Everything looked so much the same, so normal! I marveled at that, and then headed for the stairs. I didn't even really need to ask where I would be sleeping.

As I reached the upstairs hallway, I saw Rosalie. I hadn't seen her for a while; she was slinking by, coming out of her room, probably on her way downstairs. She saw me, gave me the worst death glare I had ever received, and then disappeared back into her room.

Feeling more deflated than ever, I stretched myself out on my—Edward's—couch, and tried to fall asleep. There was nothing more that I could do; at least sleeping saved me from the irony, the horribleness of it all.

Or not. I awoke, sweating, my hair sticking to my scalp and my clothes sticking to my body. I realized that I was breathing hard, and took deep breaths to try and calm my racing heart down. What the--?

I tried hard to remember my dream. Drifts of things floated back to me; I had seen Edward and Alice, and they had seemed so real. There was a room that looked a lot like a jail cell, with a single cot and stone walls. There was also a pathway of flowers; well, there was the pathway, surrounded on all sides and forever by…flowers?

Convinced that I was going crazy, I snuggled further into the couch and tried to fall asleep.


	7. Chap 7: Red Eyes, Vampire Bites

I awoke to a rustle. When I opened my eyes to find myself staring into red-hot ones, I almost screamed; but an ice-cold hand silenced me.

The intense red faded into topaz. I backed up a little, which was nearly impossible since I was still lying on the couch, and realized that it was Edward.

"Edward?" I whispered. Carlisle's words floated through my head. _He's dangerous—we don't know if you're safe with either of them anymore—in other words, we have no way of knowing what they'll do—all we can do is wait._

But there he was, so close. I had been waiting for this moment. I wanted him. I had missed him so much. A wound reopened in my heart. It had nearly sealed shut since I realized it might be weeks before I saw him, but there he was, and suddenly that ache was filled. "Edward," I repeated.

"Bella," Edward reached a hand out and stroked my cheek. I shivered slightly. "I love you, Bell—"

Something was happening to him. I didn't know what, but something. It was scaring me, but at the same time, I was fascinated, like I couldn't rip myself away from this. I was supposed to run, supposed to go find Carlisle or Esme or Jasper or Emmett or even Rosalie—but I couldn't.

Edward's eyes were glowing red again. They turned darker, darker, almost into burgundy, but then they flashed as red as a laser light. It was, maybe, the creepiest thing I had ever seen, staring into those red eyes; imagine it. Just the whole part that's usually blue or brown or green—it was just _red_.

When Edward leaned forward, I thought nothing of it. Was he going to kiss me? The hair stood up on the back of my neck, and a thrill ran through me. I felt like the girl on Michael Jackson's _Thriller_ music video. And I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

Until I felt the sharp pain of Edward's teeth clenching onto my neck.


	8. Chap 8: Transformation

Carlisle was in my doorway, yelling, "Bella!" At the top of his lungs. Esme and Jasper were close behind, and although Edward's teeth were still on me and I felt a throbbing pain, a sense of tranquility came over me.

Enraged, Emmett suddenly barreled through the doorway, nearly knocking Jasper and Esme aside, and threw his arms around Edward's waist.

Edward let out an animal-like shout, and suddenly they were rolling around on the floor, grunting.

Esme raced to my side. "Bella!" She cried, looking at my wound. I was already slipping. I could feel the blood slowly drying up, but I could also feel the intense pain, the feeling that my veins were on fire. It was slowly spreading, too; down my lungs. They contracted, and I forgot how to breathe.

I was surprised that Jasper hadn't thrown himself on me and wasn't sucking me dry. I was surprised that Esme wasn't, really. I didn't know they had so much self-control. Either way, there was no more fresh blood coming out of me at the moment.

When the pain reached my heart, I let out an ear-splitting scream, before I could stop myself. I tried to clap a hand over my mouth, but it was like my hands weren't working. I looked up, my vision swirling like soup, and Esme looked like if she could cry, she would.

Edward and Emmett had stopped scuffling. It was later explained to me that Edward seemed to snap out of his strange mood when he heard my scream; a second later he was at my side, staring down at me, and mumbling things like, "I'm so sorry. Bella. Where does it hurt? I'm sorry, love. I can't believe…." He sounded incredulous, dreading. And then he took my hand in his, and I instantly felt a little better.

But not so much better. The pain was still like hell. It was spreading slowly, so slowly that I writhed in anguish every time it moved along. I was aware that I was shaking, moving in my painful state, trying to get it to stop; just anything, just to make it _stop_.

When I opened my eyes again, Edward was gone, and Emmett was in his place. I felt my world crash down around me, and it felt like the intense pain I was feeling had suddenly doubled, or tripled.

Jasper returned with a wet cloth, which he pressed to my forehead. It helped a little, but I needed that wet cloth everywhere; currently my stomach, which hurt the most.

It was going to be a long, long three days.

I slipped in and out of consciousness, aware of the burning sensation more and more every time I opened my eyes. It was like every time I awoke, the feeling worsened. I had expected that maybe by day two or three I would be used to the pain; but it hurt more than ever with each increasing hour.

I think that it's physically impossible to live through that. If I weren't morphing into a vampire, I would've definitely died. I'm pretty sure that humans can't tolerate that amount of pain without kicking the bucket. But somehow someone up there felt like bestowing hell on Earth to me, and that was exactly what I got.

Being a vampire definitely couldn't be worse than this.

Hour after hour, I felt the pain shoot through me. The weirdest impression, by far, was when I could actually _feel_ things changing; like my fingers, or my stomach, or my face, or my legs. I wished I were prettier, just so that maybe it wouldn't hurt so much to rearrange me into perfection.

I could feel the muscles growing on me, too. My arms felt stronger, and my legs, too; and then they were sore like crazy, even as the ache continued to bust through me.

Different faces appeared at different times; Carlisle, Jasper, even Rosalie. Esme was a twenty-four-hour fixation, although she did leave once to go hunting, as I understood it. I think Alice made an appearance once, too, when Carlisle had left for a second. It was probably the only time the whole time that I was left alone, and even then, it might have been my imagination. Either way, Alice—or my dream Alice—held my hand and spoke words of comfort to me, and then looked sad a lot and kissed me on the forehead and said something else that I couldn't hear. I had a strange sense of what her words were, but at the time I forced them away because the throbbing in my whole body was too distracting and I didn't really want to think about what she had just said. And then she squeezed my hand again, and left, just as Carlisle came in the door.

I wasn't really sure if I wanted Alice to be real or not. It was a hard decision, especially after what she had said.

I didn't keep track of time, but I think somewhere around day two, I felt my mind begin to change, too. I can't say exactly what, but it was like it deepened and expanded. My hearing seemed to get better, and I could see farther away.

But mostly those three days were boring. The hurting never went away, and it intensified with every day, but all I did was lie there in my misery, for seventy-two hours.

When it finally ended, my whole body was aching. I felt like heaven had come, though, when those spouts of pain came to an end, and I had my body back. Esme was there, and she was smiling wide when I stopped fidgeting and opened my eyes to her.

"Look in the mirror," she whispered to me.

I got up—slowly, hesitantly, feeling for differences—and walked in my soreness towards the closet. There was a full-length mirror there, and I positioned myself in front of it, and then, slowly, opened my eyes.


	9. Chap 9: Vampire 101

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update--I've been really busy and things. I'll try to go quicker after this. Enjoy! And keep reviewing

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The first thing that I felt was that I was ravenously hungry, even before I focused on myself in the mirror. It came like a jolt, like someone had suddenly evaporated everything in my stomach.

I ignored it, though, and tried to concentrate on myself. That's when I nearly fainted. I probably would have, too, if the laws of being a vampire allowed it.

I was, well, _pretty_. And not just pretty, but, well, _extremely_ pretty. Even, beautiful. I blinked hard twice and then dared a second look—my face was still there. Well, my new face.

I could see parts of myself shining through, my old self, but most of my face had changed (wow, that's a surprise). The shape of my eyes was the same, but my nose was smaller, and my lips were fuller. My eyes were colored topaz, instead of the dark brown they had been before. My hair was long, dark, and silky, and fell without any frizz.

Oh. My. God.

I turned back to Esme, who was smiling widely at me.

_Please don't be a dream. Please don't be a dream._

When I turned back around to face the mirror, I was the same. That is, the same beautiful version. I guess I had sort of been expecting it, but it still came as a huge shock; I mean, come on. It was like I had had plastic surgery.

And then there was my body. It hadn't changed so much in appearance, and I was still slightly shaky from my throttling three-day experience, but I definitely felt stronger. I grinned at myself, and my perfect white teeth stared back at me.

Maybe I could get used to being a vampire, after all.

But then there was that little, itty-bitty problem. As in, food.

"I'm hungry," I announced to Esme.

Esme nodded. "I had thought as much. I'm going to take you hunting. All right?"

I agreed and walked. Well, turned and walked towards her. But then the edge of the couch was right in front of me. Uh-oh. I prepared myself for a crash bang, but then realized nothing had happened.

"Um?" I said.

Esme burst out laughing. "Your power, honey. You can avert danger." And then she dissolved into laughter.

I glared at her. She was obviously mocking me. Well it wasn't _my_ fault I was so darn clumsy. Maybe this special skill could help, though.

When Esme could finally control herself and talk, she said, "Well, not any danger. Just the kind that might make you trip, or fall, or do something clumsy. Doesn't seem like much, but there might be another part to it. We'll have to see."

_Wow, that's great_, I thought grumpily. _My skill fixes my clumsiness. Which basically brings me back to human standards._ Okay. So it was pretty much like not having a skill at all. That was cool.

I went out the door past Esme, and suddenly I was at the bottom of the stairs. "Uh…wait…what…?" I stuttered.

There was Esme, breezing by, laughing at me, again. It suddenly struck me that that would have been Alice's role, my, per say, mentor, if she had been…available. "We can walk fast," Esme told me. "You have to pace yourself. Once you get used to it, it's not very hard."

Wow, that was assuring. I took a tentative step, and to my relief, I could walk at a human pace. Okay. This was good.

Esme shook her head. "You'll never get anywhere like that," She told me. "You'll take hours to hunt if you go at that pace."

I sighed and tried to walk faster. Whoa—whoa—too fast! I nearly crashed into a tree, but it was like the tree moved aside to let me pass. Clumsiness. Hey, maybe this wouldn't be so bad, after all. I would never have to worry about crashing. Did this apply to cars, too?

Esme slid in beside me, still giggling her girlish, bell-tinkling giggle. "Okay, Bella. First, focus on your target." She was serious again. "You know where you want to go, right? Now let your feet take you there. Imagine how long you want it take you—it works the same way as when you're a human. You just step quicker or slower, depending on how long you want it to take."

I nodded. Esme shot ahead to another tree in the distance, and I followed suit.

To my surprise, I got there. Without any injuries. "Score!" I yelled, and Esme had new waves of laughter.

My hunger was starting to grow. It was spreading to my arms and legs, and I felt my eyes burning. I needed…but that was so gross!

Esme must have noticed, because she told me where we needed to go and then began to run. I followed her, running as hard and as fast as I could, because that intense hunger in the pit of my—heart?—was starting to take over my body, and that was a scary, scary thought.

I had never really understood Edward when he refused to take me on those hunting trips of his. He told me that he let go of himself, and would kill anything in sight. Me, with my, ahem, _delicious_ smell, would be a red-hot target, and he would probably suck me dry before he even knew what was happening.

I think I was beginning to understand what he was talking about.

A deer passed us by as we shot deeper and deeper into a forest. Esme shook her head at me, though, and it took tons more self-control than I thought I had to keep going. It got harder as we went; several more deer, and rabbits, and birds passed us, and Esme kept shaking her head.

I never thought I would find deer, rabbits, and birds appetizing, but at the moment they looked like bread, butter, and mashed potatoes to me.

After what seemed like forever, and way too long, we finally stopped. Esme put a long, slender finger over her lips, and tiptoed up to a tree. She looked meaningfully at me, and then suddenly attacked on something behind the tree.

Let me tell you, I have never been so startled or so freaked out by anything in my entire life. I mean, that sight—Esme's fangs seemed to grow about a hundred sizes—and her staring at the animal with wild abandon and then springing on it and sucking its blood…that sight made my own blood run cold.

Oh, my god. My blood. I didn't have blood anymore. Did I? I felt for a pulse, but it wasn't there. Oh, my god. My fingers were ice-cold.

I guess I hadn't noticed my drained face before, but I figured I must look deathly pale, like the rest of the Cullens. Oh, jeez. I had forgotten about this part—the part where I turned from a living, breathing human being to a bloodless, pulse-less, breathe-by-choice vampire.

Experimentally, I took a huge breath. I couldn't feel the air. I couldn't feel it go anywhere. My lungs didn't expand.

So now I couldn't even take deep breaths to calm myself down. It was like trying to eat air and get full. It just wasn't happening.

Suddenly feeling very, very doomed, I followed Esme to where she killed a deer for me and told me to suck its blood.


	10. Chap 10: Flowers

It wasn't that bad, but I don't think I want to go into the details of it. It definitely wasn't pleasant; I could find better ways to make a meal. But I guess, after a while, a person could get used to it. Oh, excuse me—I mean a _vampire_.

Everything tasted, well, different. I wasn't so right about the bread and mashed potatoes; the blood tasted more like flavored water. The deer tasted like meat and vegetables—I figured that was because deer ate that sort of stuff. Nothing appealed more than anything else to me, but Esme assured me that I just hadn't found my animal yet. We didn't have much selection in that forest, but she told me that we would go on an exotic hunting trip soon. And then I got hopeful again, because she mentioned that we could use animals to get to our favorite foods again; like if we found an animal with one of our favorite foods in their diet, they would taste, if not remotely, like that food.

Even the fact that I wasn't technically alive didn't seem so dreary anymore.

Unfortunately, it had started to rain as we headed back. We ran at a medium pace; faster than humans, but slower than we had getting there. I couldn't feel my eyes change, but I assumed they were very light topaz; I had eaten _a lot_.

I wondered if the eye color changed from clan to clan, but I felt stupid asking Esme. I sighed as we walked, and Esme looked over at me questioningly; I finally decided I _had_ to know, and said, "How does a vampire get its eye color?" I had assumed not all vampires had topaz eyes.

Esme smiled. "Jasper had that same question right after he got turned," She told me, making me feel loads better. "You get the same eye color as the vampire that bit you. I guess it goes back a long, long time; but the first vampires bit their humans, and they acquired their eye color. Since Edward bit you, you got his eye color."

I grinned, and we kept walking.

By the time we got back, I realized that now that I was a vampire, I had a lot more options. I could actually go after Edward—assuming I could take on other vampires who had probably been vampires for a heck of a lot longer than me. But then again, who knew what was happening with him?

Since my mind was all jumbled up anyways, I decided now would be a good time to take a trip. Port Angeles was the logical decision; it was close by, in case of emergency, and it was large enough to drown my sorrows in.

It took a while to convince everyone to let me go—they were super wary, even with me being a vampire now and all—and in the end they finally let me go, but only with a part-chaperone; Emmett and Jasper had to get presents for Alice and Rosalie, so they drove in a different car, right behind me. I drove slow to tease them; they had instructions to drive directly behind me, but I still wasn't used to vampire speeding. I kept at the speed limit, and I could see their scowls in the rearview mirror.

The only thing that really distracted me from everything was, well, my looks. I kept glancing in the mirror, expecting the beauty to vanish, to be replaced by my old self. But it didn't. I finally decided it was a magic mirror—everything was. Because that couldn't really be me.

And then another thought hit me: what would Edward think? Would he be happy, or sad? I had a feeling that if I had become coordinated, he would be unhappy. But what about this? Scary thoughts had come to me, on that long drive: as in, was Edward really in love with me, or my imperfections? Maybe he was just so used to everything being so good, he just loved the difference. Maybe he didn't really love me.

Or maybe he did.

Maybe I would never know.

I tried not to cry—not that I could, anyways—as I drove.

And then I hit the breaks so hard, my car squealed and practically tipped forward, at the last second sliding a bit so it didn't. It was like when I was younger and on a bike, if I braked too hard on the front brake I would go flying over the front handlebars.

Thank God for windshields.

But that insane stoppage was justified; because right there, I had seen it. I was pretty sure it was it.

When Jasper and Emmett saw that I was getting out of my car, they started grumbling and got out of their car too. They both looked fully prepared to yell at me, but then I think they saw my expression.

I hadn't told anyone about my dreams, but they had been lingering in the back of my mind. I mean, I'd heard about this sort of thing happening; you know, like déjà vu, except different. And I had been having this one for two nights.

And there it was, the exact picture from my dream; that pathway, surrounded on all sides by white, pink, and yellow flowers. The pathway was gray, sort of gravelly-looking, but actually solid, I discovered as I took a step on it.

"We have to go here," I told them, pointing down the path.

They exchanged a look.

"Er…why?" Emmett wanted to know.

I sighed impatiently. "I had a dream, about this. I think it might take us to, you know, Edward and Alice. Or at least one of them." If I could've blushed, I would've. I suddenly felt really childish and stupid. Like a wannabe detective.

Emmett's look told me he agreed. Well, at least, he thought I was delusional or something—but then Jasper whispered something so quick that I couldn't make it out apparently vampires had to _practice_ that quick speech thing and Emmett's look softened.

"All right." Jasper said, though he kept his distance from me. "Lead the way."

I suddenly didn't feel so brave anymore. There was something so innocent about this path that it was almost scary. I badly wanted Emmett or Jasper to lead, but I couldn't ask them; they would think I was a baby.

_You're not breakable anymore_, I reminded myself, trying to think gutsy thoughts. It wasn't really working, but I didn't have time for that. _Do you want Edward or not_? I finally asked myself, frustrated; I was playing tricks with myself, but it was a desperate time, and I really couldn't be scared.

The path seemed to go on forever, but luckily vampires get sustained stamina. I would have dropped dead, otherwise. There would be a twist in the path and my nonexistent heart would stop; but then the path would just continue. The flowers were still there, everywhere, and in the far, very, very far distance, I could make out treetops; but it looked like for miles and miles there were just flowers, even with my new eyesight. I wondered why no one ever noticed it, driving from Forks to Port Angeles—there were probably trees blocking the flowers from the road, except for that one slice, that no one ever really paid attention to. It probably looked like a driveway or walkway to a home of some sort.

After what seemed like hours, and hearing Jasper and Emmett's impatient sighs behind me, the path finally stopped. Yes, it just stopped. It melted into the flowers, which seemed to go on forever in front of me as well.

And then my vision went away, and I was spiraling down into darkness.


	11. Chap 11: Bella Begins

I hit something, and I could tell I hit it _hard_. I probably would have split right in two if I were still human. Fortunately, that wasn't true anymore.

It had definitely gotten colder. It was the weirdest feeling—like I could sense the cold, smell it, but I couldn't feel it. My eyes were quickly adjusting to severe darkness, and I wasn't even sore where I had hit. Okay. I could get used to this vampire thing.

I heard two hollow-sounding bounces behind me, and I knew that Jasper and Emmett had followed me. I could tell that they were curious now; they probably hadn't believed that the path of flowers led anywhere.

Apparently, it did.

I couldn't see anything. I felt around wildly in the darkness, preparing to give a shout; I couldn't hear Jasper or Emmett, either. What was this? Where was I? Couldn't this _not_ happen to me, considering I was a vampire now? Did it take a while for vampires to develop their abilities? Was I dead?

"Bella," I heard one of them whisper—Jasper. A collective feeling of calm washed over me. "Bella, open your eyes."

Can I tell you something? That was probably _the_ most embarrassing moment of my entire life. No, no, tripping over air definitely wasn't it. This was it. Open your eyes, Bella. Don't go crazy inside your own head, Bella.

We were in a cave. At first glance, it looked like a totally natural cave to me; it was rough and I could hear dripping sounds. Everything I heard seemed pronounced, apart from everything else; there was the dripping, our footsteps, Emmett and Jasper whispering to each other. It was like I had a hundred different ears, each hearing a separate thing.

My second instinct was to glance upwards—I had obviously fallen down when I fell, which was what I was guessing had happened, so there must have been a hole or something of that sort.

Or…not. Above was what looked to me like a solid cave ceiling. Or, at least, it looked nothing different than anything else in front of behind me. I turned in a half circle, wondering if the cave stretched on in both directions—and let out a sigh of relief when I saw a wall, which looked natural as well, sealing off the cave.

I probably shouldn't have felt relief, seeing as how in some ways the wall could trap a person…er, vampire…but if it had gone on forever in both ways, there was a good possibility that the three of us could lose our minds down there.

The constant drip was already making me crazy, seeing as how it was a hundred times multiplied what it would have been as a human. My senses were fully intact—my vampire senses—but my brain wasn't yet used to the magnified voices, images.

"Where are we, Bella?" Emmett asked me, and if I didn't know better, he sounded almost angry.

I knew better. "I have no idea. But come on; we can't stay here all day."

Emmett laughed roughly, and we headed down the cave.

It seemed like we were going ever downwards, but we had no way of really telling; the cave seemed to be sloping, but it was so gradual that even our amazing perceptions could barely pick up on it. I turned my mind away from the fact that a foot of cave wall looking exactly identical to the next foot, and so on, and that it seemed eerily like we were going in circles, because that was kind of impossible. There had been no turns so far; and as dead-on as it was, the passage in front of us eventually melted into darkness that not even we could make out.

Jasper and Emmett seemed to be talking in whispers the whole time, which I heard but could not understand; I didn't really have a concern, either way. I considered telling them about my dream, but I held back. They would probably think I was mental.

Something flashed through my brain, suddenly:

_Different faces appeared at different times; Carlisle, Jasper, even Rosalie. Esme was a twenty-four-hour fixation, although she did leave once to go hunting, as I understood it. I think Alice made an appearance once, too, when Carlisle had left for a second. It was probably the only time the whole time that I was left alone, and even then, it might have been my imagination. Either way, Alice—or my dream Alice—held my hand and spoke words of comfort to me, and then looked sad a lot and kissed me on the forehead and said something else that I couldn't hear. I had a strange sense of what her words were, but at the time I forced them away because the throbbing in my whole body was too distracting and I didn't really want to think about what she had just said. And then she squeezed my hand again, and left, just as Carlisle came in the door._

_I wasn't really sure if I wanted Alice to be real or not. It was a hard decision, especially after what she had said._

I could suddenly remember Alice's words clearly, like they had been stamped on my brain in permanent ink: "Come save us, Bella. Please. It's up to you—only you. Bella…."

At that time, I had dreaded those words; I had wished that maybe she had never come and given such a huge responsibility to me. What could I, a measly human, do? Sure, I could imagine myself being pigheaded and chasing after something huge and dangerous, but after a while an act of heroism turned into a death wish.

But now I was different. I was stronger, more powerful. I could move quickly, I could see farther—I could avert my clumsiness.

Abruptly, I felt Jasper and Emmett stop behind me. I turned, curious. They put fingers to their lips and stood shock still.

I froze. And then I could hear it.

Faint voices were coming from what seemed like right behind the right-hand wall; the cave continued on until it blurred into darkness ahead, but it sounded like there was a room right there. I wondered how that could possibly work while I tried to listen.

Jasper shook his head, and walked soundlessly to the wall, pressing his ear to it.

The talking immediately stopped.

Emmett's face was curious, then fearful, and then calm. It was comical, in a way—big, beefy Emmett actually looked _scared_ of something. Should I feel scared? I took stock of myself. I felt exhilarated, excited, cautious, and alert, but scared wasn't anywhere a part of that. I couldn't decide if I was brave or just naïve.

"Ah." A voice suddenly said. "We have guests."

I didn't jump. I was so proud of myself, I felt like I could run in circles. But that might be a problem, in the cave. And besides, that voice sounded like business.

Jasper and Emmett were both staring at me—past me. I quickly turned, hoping I hadn't missed anything.

It took all my self-control, every ounce of it, vampire and human, to not burst out laughing.


	12. Chap 12: Capruti

**Sorry it's taken so long for chapters eleven and twelve—school's started and I've been mucho busy! I'll try and update quicker now but we'll see…and I'll try to wrap this story up soon, it's probably boring all of you. Sorry! But thanks to all my wonderful readers and reviewers! Keep R&Ring, folks!**

There was a man, and it looked like he barely went farther than my waist, height-wise. His long, white beard almost touched his feet; and he had big, round glasses. He was wearing a white lab coat, which added much to his funny appearance. And his feet were huge.

One look at Jasper and Emmett shut me up, real good—they were both grim-faced, staring back at me with that _shut up_ look I got so often. The little man looked so harmless, though; so much like a comic book character. I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from laughing. I sincerely hoped I wouldn't snort.

I checked closer; it didn't appear that the man was vampire. His eyes were sky blue, and I wasn't sure if that could happen on a vampire; he could very well be an animal-hunting kind, and he wouldn't have red eyes.

I couldn't risk whispering to Emmett and Jasper, in case he really was a vampire, because I still hadn't gotten it down straight and the man would probably be able to hear.

Suddenly, the man smiled; like really, really smiled. His grin was so wide, I thought his teeth would fall out—and I swear to god, if I were still human I would have drawn blood from my tongue; that was how hard I was biting to keep the laughter in check. I didn't feel any chills, either, like how a person feels when a bad guy is around. It seemed perfectly normal to me.

But then again, that could be a side effect of vampire-ism.

"Come with me, please," The man said, and his voice was so authorative and practically deadly that my laughter exploded in my stomach and disappeared, forever silenced.

And then the little man did the most amazing thing, the likes of which I have never seen before, except on animated Disney cartoon shows—he walked straight through that cave wall, the one that we had heard voices behind. I gaped after him, and my apparently my new brothers found this funny and started laughing, before following the man through the wall. Okay. So this was one of those leave-Bella-out-because-she-just-turned-vampire-recently things. I understood perfectly.

But I didn't really want to be left out in that dark, dripping cave anyways, no matter how invincible I had become. So I took a tentative step, and then another, until I was face to face with the wall. And then I took a step.

It was the weirdest sensation. It felt like I was melting into the wall, becoming a part of it. It was really quite scary, because there was no way on Earth I wanted to be part of a wall. In my haste to get through, I stumbled, and did a front roll before landing on my butt in front of everyone.

So my powers couldn't stop _that_ from happening.

When I say everyone, I mean more than the three people I expected; there were others, too. They stood there like zombies, all unblinking, all terribly, cruelly beautiful, all staring at me with laser-red eyes. With a shudder I remembered Edward's eyes, the night he had bitten me. They would haunt me for a while; after all, now I was sticking around even longer.

I tried staring one of those—vampires?—in the eyes, but I had to look away because their stares were blinding me. It was seriously, like a laser light. Then I turned to the little man, who appeared, quite strangely, to be smirking—and then Jasper and Emmett, who looked quiet and grim.

The room itself wasn't all that big, though I could imagine it being used for meetings and such. All the red-eyed people were standing up on the bare cave floor. In the center of the room was a huge oval table, with probably thirty chairs or so placed around it. One chair was higher than the others, and more splendid looking, and I immediately guessed it belonged to the little man. Other than that, the room was bare of all furniture—except most strangely, the walls were carpeted, and pictures and paintings hung off of what seemed like nails stuck into it.

The little man caught my gaze and smiled, a fake, comfortless smile. "We try to keep things neat and tidy around here."

His tone hinted that it was pretty hard to do that, but I didn't feel like exploring the possibilities of why, though I guess my conscience was figuring it had something to do with vampire-human interaction.

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks: I wasn't human anymore.

I grinned back, surprising everyone—the little man, the red-eyed people, and even Jasper and Emmett—and said, "Yes, yes. I can imagine why." My boldness probably surprised me, the most; I was probably the one who knew the most that I didn't have it in me. The Cullens had always had an obstructed view of me; they thought I was super brave to be hanging out with a bunch of vampires, but in actuality, I was just stupid and love struck.

"Well…" The little man regained his composure quickly, and stretched his lips over his teeth in a sad attempt at a smile. It was more smirk- and horse-like, though, and I had to look away because it was sending chills my way. "Let me have my most prominent guests here step forward." His grin was purely malicious now, and I was completely confused.

A ravishing girl with long, brown hair and eyes so red I couldn't tell the actual color stepped forward. She was tall and willowy, and I could imagine her dancing. "This is Marisa," The man told me. All of a sudden, he started. "Oh! Oh! Me and my manners. My name is Capruti. Pleased to meet you, Isabella, Jasper, Emmett."

It was my turn to be surprised. I had never told him—Capruti—my name. Obviously, since he had called me _Isabella_. Icky. How did he know? I glanced at the other Cullens, and they both looked as confused as me. And what kind of godforsaken name was Capruti?

The name seemed to instill some sort of fear in Emmett, but Jasper looked unaffected, just like me. Was this because Jasper hadn't been a part of the vampire world as long as Emmett? Or did Emmett just know some big secret because he was on the inside?

Whatever. I turned my attention back to Marisa; and all of a sudden the red lights in her eyes died, and they were clearly gray. All traces of redness were gone. "My name's Marisa," She told us pleasantly, as if Capruti hadn't just old us that five seconds ago.

Capruti glanced at Marisa, and the laser returned. They glowed burgundy, like Edward's had, and then reached their full red potential. Something was happening to her, too—but unlike Edward, it didn't seem like she was struggling.

"Marisa," Capruti said calmly.

Marisa's gaze grew cold and harsh. She glanced at me, and all the lines in her face that had seemed to soft and warm before were now sharp angles, unfriendly and full of warning. And then she stepped back, into the crowd.

"You'd not like to mess with Marisa," Capruti told us. The way he said it, though, made me feel like he was prideful of that fact. Why would he have pride in that?

Next, a male stepped forward; he looked about twenty-five, with short, spiked brown hair and those red eyes.

"This is Mario. Mario and Marisa are my two favorites." Capruti confided, though I figured it wasn't much of a secret, considering how arrogantly Mario was looking at us.

I stared at Mario for a minute, and the laser flickered away, revealing navy-blue eyes. He stared blankly back at me for a while, and then he seemed to remember something. All the arrogance was gone, and now he just looked scared, or worried. "Mama!" He cried in a thick Italian accent. "Mama!"

Capruti turned to look at him, and the redness returned to his eyes; he immediately shut up, and the look of haughtiness returned. Capruti looked annoyed, but his face relaxed when the red returned to Mario's eyes.

I thought back to what had happened with Edward—he had come in with bad purposes, but when the light flickered out, he had said he loved me, and had been so tender and…but then the light had come back, and he had bitten my neck, which was so insanely out of character for him, because he was dead set against my becoming a vampire.

Realization hit me.

"Oh, you!" I cried venomously, concentrating my hate-filled gaze on Capruti. He didn't flinch.

"Yes?" He asked sweetly.

I forgot the room, the people, Jasper, Emmett, everything. I felt the rage building up inside me, pushing under my eyelids, filling my stomach, squeezing my non-functioning heart out of my ribcage. My world flashed black and red and white, and Capruti was standing there, fully calm. I wanted to…to…I wanted to hurt him so badly, he was begging for mercy.

And then I let out a scream, a scream so loud and bad that it hurt my own ears. I unconsciously noticed Jasper and Emmett and Capruti covering their ears, but none of the red-eyed people although it looked like the noise was hurting them physically.

And then everything ended.

Emmett had his arm around me, shushing me, muffling my scream into his arm. Capruti was looking amused, and Jasper…I had no idea where Jasper had gone. My view was slightly blocked by Emmett's big arm, and I couldn't see much anymore.

"What kind of camp are you running here?" I tried to demand, but Emmett pressed my head harder into his arm so it came out like a couple of squeaks.

It was then that I saw him.

There he was—my one and only—near the back of the crowd, no, _at_ the back of the crowd, almost fully hidden among the sea of flawless faces. But I couldn't mistake him for anyone, anywhere, even if his eyes were that hideous fire engine red color—

My Edward.


	13. Chap 13: Easy Escape

I stared at him until he turned to look at me, and suddenly the red vanished; it was replaced by that honey topaz—no…it was suddenly the deepest, darkest black, and I wondered when was the last time he had fed.

Capruti suddenly seemed enraged, and he whirled around to stare at Edward. His eyes immediately flashed red. Confused, I kept staring; they turned back into black, but right when Capruti looked at him again, they turned red.

Capruti turned to me, an evil smile on his face. "My dear," He said in a calm, but deadly voice, "Do refrain from glancing into my subjects' eyes."

Subjects? What the hell? I wanted to break away from Edward and run to Capruti and rip him into a million pieces. He had no right to do this to anyone!

I didn't have a full picture of what was going on, yet, like whether his intentions were to rule the world or just the vampire world—but so far I could pretty much tell that he had taken these people over, or he was somehow controlling them. I made a mental note to point out that it was painfully obvious to any observer that these people weren't normal, but I was pretty sure he was smart enough to figure that one out.

I ignored his warning, and stared at Edward again. His eyes flashed black, and Capruti didn't seem to notice—thank the gods. Edward took a step towards me, and then another, but he had the whole room to cover; he wouldn't make it. He would! I bit my lip as hard as I could and willed the world to be on my side. Come on, come on….

There was fire in Capruti's eyes when he shot a glance at Edward, turning his eyes red again, and then looked at me.

"No!" Emmett shouted, but the cry was lost in the utter silence of the place.

It came to me like smoke, the faint muttering that seemed to be coming from Capruti's still lips. And then I felt something that I had thought I would never feel again—the sharpest pain in my head, like I had crushed it against a brick wall. I had thought that when I turned vampire, all my clumsiness and injuries would be over—oh, I was so, so wrong. I was flung back against the wall, and I felt my backbone crunch. Pain shot through every vein of my body—somehow this seemed even worse than when I was turning into a vampire. And then it all stopped.

Capruti was laughing, a maniacal gleam in his eye—I was truly scared, folks. He looked like he belonged in the loony bin; in a straitjacket; with padded walls, so he didn't hurt himself. Or anyone else. Namely me.

I looked over at Jasper, and he nodded once; a feeling of calm settled over me, broke through my worries and my head felt lighter already. I gave him a small smile for thanks, and turned my attention back to Capruti. Okay. I finally decided we'd need a master plan; this wasn't going to work, standing here and waiting for Edward to come back to our side. "Well, nice to meet you," I said, standing up straight. I tried to pretend that the pain hadn't affected me, though it was bouncing through me still, like a bouncy ball in an empty room with everlasting momentum. "But I think we have to be going now."

Capruti's grin widened. "Oh, no." He replied. "I think you'll find yourself very comfortable, here, with _us_."

If I still had blood, the way he said that 'us' would have made my blood run cold. Somehow, I had a feeling he wasn't talking about his parents.

I glanced at Jasper, then Emmett—and I really, really wished they could read minds right then. I sort of had a plan, kind of, a really whacked out one that probably wouldn't work; but still, I knew I couldn't whisper it to them, because I wasn't practiced and Capruti was obviously a lot more skilled in that area.

Brain flash.

The brilliant thought hit me so fast that I almost fell backwards; luckily, my vampire powers were still intact, and falling backwards for no particular reason fell under category 'clumsy'. It wasn't so much of a flash as a realization, or a thought, or something like that.

Edward could still read minds, when his eyes weren't that horrible red color.

I nudged Emmett a bit towards Capruti, hoping he would get the idea and go distract him…or something….

Capruti knew something was up. He kept glancing over at me, but Emmett finally got the hint and stepped towards him, whispering something that even I couldn't here. Capruti's attention was gone, off of me. I stared as hard as I could at Edward, willing him to look up, counting the time off on my fingers. Twenty seconds. That was it. If it didn't work in that time, I was screwed.

Twenty…Edward, look up! Nineteen…Eighteen…Edward finally looked up, and I breathed a little sigh of relief, then stiffened and looked over at Capruti; his back was almost towards me. Thank god for smart vampires. I thought as hard as I could: _Stare into their eyes! Stare into their eyes!_ With my own eyes I looked around at the crowd, still screaming the thought in my head.

Thirteen. Come on, Edward. Please work, I thought frantically. What if Capruti had taken their powers, too? What if….

Edward nodded at count eleven. He began to look around, focusing on someone's eyes until they were no longer red. I did that too; by five we had at least ten un-red. And we kept going. I honestly was surprised that Capruti hadn't looked over by now; what the hell was Emmett saying to him? Not that it really mattered to me, anyways…as long as we could get everyone good and get ourselves out, ASAP.

Capruti finally looked over at zero. A shudder went through me, involuntarily; would he unleash his crazy whacked out powers on me again? I sure wasn't ready for the intense pain.

It didn't come. He seemed shocked, which was good, and I could see the fire light in his eyes as he tried to look back into their eyes; they all looked away, though, before he could. I heard the whispers going through them, instructing the others to not look at him directly.

All this mayhem, coming from a man that was probably no more than three and a half feet high.

Jasper jumped into action, suddenly and so violently that I almost screamed. He sprang and I saw him out of the corner of my eye, breathtakingly fast take Capruti and squeeze an arm around his waist and another hand over his mouth, so he couldn't mutter an incantation that would be the doom of us all.

I suddenly felt very in control. "Okay, Cappy." I was _so_ in control that I could even give him a nickname that he would probably hate. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way." I held my hands behind my back and paced back and forth in front of him and Jasper, feeling very big and proud and important. "Give us a way out, and we let you go, unharmed. Don't, and things may get ugly." I nodded towards the crowd of recently un-evil-ized vampires (they were too sickeningly beautiful to be human) that clearly outnumbered Capruti, no matter how powerful he might be. There was no way he could compete with a roomful of vampires.

Right?

To my utter surprise, Capruti lifted a finger and the ceiling above us slid aside to allow daylight in.

The room was instantly ablaze with the light that rebounded off of all of our glittery skin, except Capruti—he stayed human-colored. I didn't sparkle that much, because Emmett, Jasper and I had taken precautions even though it had been overcast before. We had on dark, long clothing and hats.

One of the vampires jumped—apparently their skill was mad hops—and disappeared up above. The rest of us climbed on tables and chairs and hoisted ourselves up, because the ceiling really hadn't been that high.

Emmett was last coming through, and he brought Capruti up, then dropped him back down. I hadn't though it would be that easy, but the ceiling immediately slid shut, and Capruti was still down below.

Okay, then.

It did seem too easy to me, and suspicious, but since it was my first adventure as a vampire I guess I didn't really notice, or care. All that mattered was that my Edward was with me, and he wasn't under anybody's influence. Except mine. Hehe.


	14. Chap 14: Second Guesses

I barely had a chance to breathe in the fresh air (who cared if it didn't really affect me) before I felt a pair of strong arms encircle my waist and swing me around.

I smiled widely—I had been waiting for this moment forever. Now there was nothing between us; nothing at all. I was a vampire too. I turned in his arms and pressed my lips to his; I didn't have to contain my kiss now.

He kissed me back, but he still seemed hesitant. I wrapped my arms more around him and tried to pull him closer, but all of a sudden he let go of me and stumbled backwards. "You…you…." He whispered, over and over.

I wasn't in a mood for this. "What?" I snapped, annoyed at him. I hadn't seen him in…days? Weeks? I couldn't remember anymore. But it had been long enough, and I missed him so much.

"You're a vampire." His voice was half awed, half surprised, and half guilty, but towards the end it even got angry. "Why are you a vampire?" It sounded more like he was trying to convince himself, but then he turned on me.

"Because you bit me, you numbskull. And no one was there to suck it back out." I told him, suddenly angry at him, too. He had no right to talk to me like this! Not when I went in there and rescued him from that midget! I wouldn't have been able to do that as a human. If Capruti hadn't eaten me first, any of those vampires would've.

Speaking of them, they had all scattered. Only a couple were still traipsing through the flowers, where I looked and couldn't find any trace of what might have been anything leading to Capruti's hideout. There were just flowers everywhere. In the distance I saw the pathway we had been walking on, and where it suddenly stopped. Wow. That tunnel must have been long.

My attention turned back to Edward. His face was crestfallen. He looked so sad that I would have been sure his heart had just fallen out his behind, had he not been immortal. "I'm so…sorry…Bella…" With each word, he took a step backwards, until he was at least ten feet away. Which was unacceptable. I closed the space between us.

"Listen here!" I told him, even madder now. "You have no right to do this to me. First you bite me, and now you don't want to come near me. I'm not contagious, and I still love you! And there's nothing you can do now, I'm a vampire, and this isn't a nightmare, and I know you still love me!" The last part was more for my benefit than his, but I wished he would just get it through his thick skull and leave out the heartbreak and all that.

18th century boys were just so difficult. Think they know everything because they've lived 100+ years.

Okay. He was coming back. That was good. Back…back… "Where's Alice?" He finally asked. He was close, but not close enough; maybe five-ish feet away. It looked like he was keeping his distance purposely.

My brain lit up. I felt my anger flaring, bucking inside me. Every thing he did, every word he said, was like a blow on the fire, making it grow higher, and higher, and…. "Why the hell do you care!" I screamed at him, and turned and ran as fast as my legs could take me—which was pretty damn fast. I didn't even realize how fast I was running; that is, until I ended up at home, at Charlie's house….

"B-B-Bella?" The voice was wavering and weak, and it seemed to be coming from the direction of the family room. _Charlie_.

I tried to walk at a normal pace towards the room, hearing the TV on in the background; and I realized what I had done. How could I? I saw him there, and I felt myself whitening, my hands shaking.

Charlie was sitting on the couch, empty pizza boxes strewn about him. His eyes were red; his face was saggy and tired. He was slumped like he didn't care about anything, and he smelled—it hit my nose with annoying clearness. Thanks, vampire senses. His gut had definitely grown.

"Oh, Charlie!" I cried, and ran (human pace) to hug him. I ignored the smell; it was the least I could do. I had completely forgotten him, alone, here, watching TV and ordering dinner every night…. "I'm so sorry, Charlie."

"Bella…Bella? Bella." He kept repeating my name, sometimes questioning, sometimes firm, as if he couldn't decide whether I was really here or not.

"It's okay, Charlie. I'm here. I'm right here." I sat next to him and put my arms around him.

"Bells? You've changed." He touched my face, and I felt the tears building up inside my eyes, the pressure against my nose, knowing that I wouldn't be able to release this pain—at least, not in the way I wanted.

"I know, Daddy. I know. I'm sorry." I whispered, wishing beyond anything at that moment that I could cry. I hated not having those emotions.

Charlie's grip suddenly tightened on me. "Bella."

And then he fell into a deep, hopefully peaceful sleep.

My thoughts were too big—my pain was too deep. The ceiling couldn't contain it. I felt so claustrophobic, like I was going to explode; those nasty tears that built up inside me but couldn't be let out weren't really helping, either. After making sure Charlie was comfortable, I eased myself off the couch and headed for the kitchen—food always made me feel better.

Food.

No.

I was overcome by a terrible sense of doom. It was like the walls were closing in on me, everything was gone, I was spiraling downwards, and I couldn't stand up and I couldn't understand anything. My brain was jumbled and I wanted to cry and scream and kick and bite and…bite…and my head was burning and my stomach was ice cold and my heart wasn't there anymore.

And neither was Edward.

I collapsed on the floor, my mind broken and my throat constricted. Everything was wobbling; I felt like my whole world was tipping one way or another. It almost felt like I had a fever—but of course, that was impossible. My skin was ablaze and I wanted to sweat, but I couldn't. This wasn't normal, was it? Vampires were supposed to be cold, but I could have been in an inferno right then and I wouldn't have noticed the difference.

Maybe this always happened to new vampires, and Carlisle had just forgotten to tell me. Or maybe this was an aftereffect of Edward's obnoxious behavior; maybe vampires reacted differently to emotions than humans and Carlisle had forgotten to tell me.

What I had thought would be a blessing was finally a curse. Unconsciousness would have been a sweet relief from my half-alive state on the floor in front of the stairs, the contents of my mind and body sloshing around like soup, but my newfound abilities wouldn't allow it to happen.

One more thought raced through my mind before I gave up thinking and just focused on _being_: _Be careful what you wish for_.


	15. Chap 15: A Curse and a Ring

**A/N: Sorry it's been sso long to review! I've been so busy with school and other things, and then I went on vacation for a four-day weekend we had, and...well...forgive me:) Thanks to all my wonnnderful reviewers and the loyal ones that review almost every chapter. I love you guys!**

I thought I was still delirious when, what seemed like hours later, I saw—or more like _felt_—Alice crouching over me.

Alice? What? Sure that I was dreaming, I reached out, almost afraid to put my hand on her lest she disappear. But then my fingers were touching her cool skin, and she was real and not going anywhere.

"Alice?" I tried to say, but my mouth felt like it was full of cotton. I needed water. Something. Badly.

Alice slowly shook her head, which made my own head spin from the seemingly sudden action. My reflexes were so slow right then that someone snapping their fingers or clapping their hands would have made my head hurt.

I felt cool fingers touching my head then, and my world started to collapse in on itself again. No! I couldn't let myself go; I had to talk to Alice, see her, hear her: I hadn't had any contact with her in what seemed like forever.

"I'm back," Alice whispered. "I'm back, and for good."

Those words spun through me and shook my head again, sending huge shocks of pain through it. _Ah_.

"Where did you go?" I rasped. My mouth felt like it was full of cotton.

Alice waved her hand. The sudden movement made my head pound again. Maybe these vampire reflexes _weren't_ such a blessing. "That doesn't matter right now. We have to get you to Carlisle." And with that, she picked me up and slung me over her shoulder, which made my stomach clench like I was going to hurl.

Of course, that wasn't possible, even when Alice started hurtling out of the house. We ran the whole way to the Cullen's, which didn't really help my ailment, or whatever it was. I felt worse than when I would have the flu when I was human; even more drained and weak and sick.

Alice was damn lucky that I couldn't throw up all over her.

We reached in record time, though, I must admit. Carlisle was waiting for me in the living room, and to my utter delight and horror, Edward was playing piano—my song. My lullaby. I shuddered and clutched Alice, refusing to look at him. He couldn't get to me, even in my most weakened state.

I laid down on the couch, and Carlisle examined me. "You're even paler than usual, and if you had the capacity, you would be violently sick, am I correct?"

I nodded as strongly as I could, and then let my head go limp back on the pillow.

Carlisle nodded once. "You've been cursed."

"Excuse me?" I coughed up.

"Well, perhaps curse is too strong a word. You've been looked down on—brought bad luck to. You escaped your short friend very nimbly, however, he has not let you go without consequence. _This_ is your consequence—he has brought you down so you cannot go search for him or destroy him. He is probably out creating another army."

I really did wonder how he knew so much about Capruti, but I didn't push it. "So…get rid of it?" I was unable to form sentences of more than four or five words, so I had to limit myself.

Thankfully, Carlisle understood. "To get rid of it, you must destroy the distributor of the curse—in this case, your short friend. Well, _you_ must not destroy him, he just must be destroyed."

My eyes almost automatically slid to Edward, but I forced them back to Carlisle. "Okay."

"Well get right on that," Carlisle promised, and turned to—thank goodness—Emmett and Jasper. He looked deeply in thought with them, but I needed to get out of here. The walls were closing in and I was gasping for breath and—

I got up slowly, shakily, and tried to sneak out.

"Bella." Carlisle called, his eyes never leaving Emmett and Jasper.

I sighed exasperatedly and sat back down on the couch. The world was spinning again—I gripped the edge of the cushion until my knuckles were—would have been—white. This just threw me into a bigger frenzy, and I began to kick my legs and my arms and…and….

_"Bella, wake up_." The voice was so, so far away. It was coming from the end of a long tunnel. Which way should I go? Towards the voice, or the sunshine?

The voice became clearer as it repeated the phrase and I recognized it. Except…I didn't. No, I had positively never heard this voice before.

"_Bella_. _To defeat this monster, you must look inside yourself and forgive those who you love, for their only wish is to protect you. You must find the black heart and defeat it, and you will be free once again._"

And then I heard more voice, the ones I knew and loved, and they were yelling at me to wake up and they sounded hysterical—at least, the ladies' voices did.

Even Rosalie seemed slightly worried, though not as much as Esme and Alice. Alice! She was still here!

I forced my eyes open, and they were all standing there, looking over me. One face caught my gaze, but I quickly moved on and focused on Alice.

"What happened?" I muttered, but of course, they heard.

"You fell…into a trance?" Carlisle offered. "I've never seen anything like this before."

My stomach turned uneasily. Even _Carlisle_ didn't know what was happening to me? This was bad. Really, really bad.

And then Jasper and Emmett were gone, and I had an even worse feeling; it rose inside me in bile liquid, and I was thanking my lucky stars that I wasn't allowed to throw up. Everything in me told me that it was the natural thing to do in a situation like this—but then again, I wasn't natural anymore.

And then Esme and Alice and Rosalie were gone in a whir of perfect skin and hair, and I lurched when I realized Edward and I were the only people left in the room—and probably house, though knowing Alice she might be eavesdropping. Although she might not have to, with those nifty visions of hers.

Edward was playing my lullaby. He finished the song beautifully, and then came over to me. He helped me sit up, and then he sat back down on the ground.

I held my breath, waiting for what was to come.

He knelt down on one knee, and held something out from his pocket. It was….

I knew what it was, even before he took it out. I wished my heart were there, beating erratically. I wished my face could heat up. I wished I could _feel_ my emotions physically, and not just emotionally. But more than anything, I wished that this moment would never end.

"Yes," I whispered, before he even asked me.

He shook his head, smiling. "Let me go first," He whispered. "Bella Swan. Ever since I first met you, you've hit me like a whirlwind. At first, I wanted to eat you" here he laughed a little "and then when I got to know you, I couldn't decide which I wanted more, to keep you or to taste your blood. You surprised me incredibly by _not caring_ that I'm a vampire, and continuing to be with me. And you kept surprising me with your emotions and acts and…everything. You're an unpredictable girl, Bells, but you're so sweet and amazing and wonderful and I love you so much. Bella Swan, will you marry me?"

The only thing I could think about at that moment was that he had said Bella every time, not Isabella, and for that I was forever grateful.

And then there was the little issue of whether I should say yes or not.

_You're mad at him_, one voice told me.

_Why the hell did you stick yourself in eternity if you weren't going to marry him?!_ Another voice demanded.

On tests, I had usually found that the longer sentences in multiple choice questions were the correct ones. So, you know, I figured I should go with the longer sentence.

"Yes," I whispered. My voice was so quiet and low that he probably wouldn't have heard me if he wasn't supernatural.

"Yes!" He yelled, and threw his arms around me. I jumped into him and we both landed on the floor and he kissed me as hard as he could, and I returned it as passionately as I could, because now, finally, I didn't have to hold back.

My sickness seemed to just vanish. Edward helped me up, and we held hands and walked into the kitchen to announce the news, where apparently everyone—well, the girls and Carlisle—were waiting for us.

"You're getting married!" Alice squealed, and ran to give us both bear hugs. Rosalie just smiled/smirked a little, and Esme looked like she would be crying tears of joy.

All in all, the day could have ended worse.


	16. Chap 16: Capruti's Army

**A/N: So once upon a time there was this girl. And she really, really wanted to finish this one story of hers—but she had extremely funny but extremely homework-fond teachers that gave her boatloads of work every night, and expected her to be finished and then sit in their classes bright and early. Every night she wrote another sentence, but by the time that happened, it was eleven o'clock! She cried and cried for she could not finish her story…er…get the idea? Good.**

** Anyways—R&R, as always:)  
**

* * *

So there it was, pretty much: my happily ever after. Right? Right?

Wrong. I hate to say it, but that was like the calm before the storm. Well, maybe not, but something like that.

What I mean to say is, a little while later—like that night—Edward and I went hunting. Us girls had sufficiently gushed, while Edward and Carlisle had gone off wherever to have guy time, and then Edward and I had decided to go on our _first_ hunting trip together as an engaged couple. It pretty much put jitters in my stomach.

We were out in the forest—I wasn't really sure where, Edward had just grabbed my hand and told me to run—and we were currently searching for our prey.

Edward sniffed the air, and his eyes were instantly ablaze. "Cougars!" He whispered hoarsely, and nodded for me to quiet my steps.

We moved stealthily through the forest, I following Edward. _Yes_, I was stealthy. Don't give me that look! My superpower or whatever—the whole avoiding clumsiness thing—really was working pretty well. I managed to not crack my skull on any trees, or trip over any tree roots, or anything like that. It was pretty smooth sailing.

I couldn't yet pick up on the scent, since while my senses were vampire-ized, they weren't fully developed or as good as Edward's or however that worked. I felt a faint nagging in the direction we were heading that grew slowly, but I definitely couldn't have found the cougar myself.

We finally stumbled upon it in a small clearing. Edward nodded at me and held out his arms for me to go ahead of him: he was insisting that I needed practice catching my own animals. I, of course, didn't understand why, because it was enough to make me throw up to want to kill innocent poor animals, but he was making me.

Besides, the cougar smelled pretty good from this close up.

So I went.

But right before I hit the cougar, for the second time in my short vampire life I felt the weird sensation of blacking-out-except-not and falling a short distance, yet totally surprised.

"Edward!" I yelled instinctively, clutching myself as I hit rock bottom. I looked around, and my heart sank. Oh, no. Not again.

"Bell!" I heard a voice from above, and then frantic scurrying and then, finally, the thump next to me that signaled Edward had reached as well.

It all happened too fast for me to protest, for me to do the heroic thing and tell Edward to not come down here. But I knew that deep down, I really didn't want to go back through this alone.

I heard his sharp intake of breath, and knew that he recognized where we were, as well.

"That son of a—" Edward began, but was cut off.

"Ah, my friends have decided to join me again?" The smooth, sickening voice asked mockingly.

"Yeah, like we had a choice," I answered hotly anyways, getting up and dusting myself off. I could already see through the darkness: there was the small figure, the short, stupid, freakish little man.

Capruti grinned. "Ah, but you did! By foiling my plan you have bought yourself a one-way ticket to hell, let me assure you."

"Oh, joy." I replied dryly. I looked at Edward and caught the look he shot me: it told me to shut up quickly and without fight, or else.

Capruti turned around and began to walk. I rolled my eyes. How stupid was he? I wasn't going to follow. I began to inch backwards, hoping I wouldn't hit rock behind me.

"_Don't_ even think about it." Capruti's voice cut through the darkness.

I stopped instantly, startled. How had he been able to tell? Quickly shaking my head, I slowly began to follow, as slowly as I could, taking my time to concentrate in putting one foot in front of another, slowly, slowly.

"Hurry up," Capruti barked, and my gait instantly sped.

What? Why was this happening? I forced myself to slow down further.

"I _said_," Capruti told me angrily, "_Hurry up_!"

My feet quickened again, seemingly of their own accord. I helplessly looked over at Edward as I tried to make my feet slow a bit, although it wasn't really working.

Edward seemed just as puzzled as me. I couldn't tell if Capruti's commands were having the same effect on him or not, but at least he knew I was somewhat bound.

But then my chance came.

I…well…_sensed_ it more than I saw it—a sort of bump in the cave wall, about four inches above my head, that came out almost like a pole, so it looked easy to hang on to. It was about a hundred feet in front of me, so I sped up easily, until I was right underneath it.

Edward was eyeing me warily, as if wondering what other foolish trick I was going to try.

Not foolish! I wanted to scream. My last plan had worked! Praying that this would too, but not really letting myself think about what I was about to do, I jumped and grabbed onto the hold as best I could. It was slippery, but I hoped that this vampire-ness would get me some traction, at least.

Capruti was almost literally underneath me. He looked up to yell at me, but I quickly heaved myself backwards and forwards that my feet connected with his head.

_Please be somewhat mortal. Please be somewhat mortal._ I repeated the chant in my head like a mantra, thinking that maybe if I repeated it enough, it would come true.

It came true. I heard the sickening _thud_ with which Capruti hit the ground in all its surround-sound glory, compliments of my recent vampire bite. And then something red and oh-so-delicious smelling trickled out of the spot I had kicked him….

My vision flashed, and suddenly my tongue was on the ground, lapping up whatever was coming out of Capruti's head.

And then I felt like a total creep and tried to clear the heady feeling in my brain. Edward's arms grabbed me and pulled me backwards—"It's not safe," He whispered in my ear.

I was extremely grateful he had pulled me away; my stomach was wrenching violently, like I was going to throw up; I most definitely would've, if I could've. "Thanks," I whispered back.

He nodded once. "Now we must find a way out of here."

I silently savored the way he talked in that old-English sort of way, but then quickly followed him through the dark cave in the direction Capruti had been leading us. I wasn't really sure how smart that was, but I trusted Edward.

And then I saw a red light in the distance, and then a twin red light, and then more red lights, and then—

Uh-oh.

It was Capruti's Army.

My first instinct was to turn and run--but then I guess my feral instinct (who knew I had one? I guess it's included in the whole vampire package) took over, and I wanted to rip those children limb from limb.

So that wouldn't necessarily be my idea of a fun time, but hey. Give me a break.

Edward was glaring at them all. His face looked so beautiful when he was angry--I almost forgot to look at the hundreds of red-eyed vampires assembled on the forefront as I gazed at his face in loving...

Ew. Since when did I get all icky-mushy?

I pushed back my sleeves, then winced at my extremely pale, even paler than my old self, skin and pulled them up again. I was just going to have to get my clothes dirty. "What's the plan?" I whispered to Edward, hoping I had mastered the art of getting my voice low enough so the vampires about half a mile away from us wouldn't hear.

I don't think they did, but I can't be sure.

Edward offered a lopsided half-smile that literally made me melt. "There is none."

All right, I'll admit, I kind of freaked out then. "There's _what_?" I demanded. "Why _not_?" I balled up my fists, ready to throw a few punches his way. Apparently along with that all-inclusive package was a hyped-up temper.

"Save your energy for them," Edward advised. God. I _hated_ how he was always right. "Wing it. Your last two plans have worked, have they not?"

Again with the little old-English clauses--such as 'have they not.' Seriously, the boy was going to be the end of me one day. Did he do that on _purpose_? Use those adorable little phrases, just to mess me up? I bet he just didn't want that punch, because he knew it might hurt. Right? Right?

At least there was one good thing about the impending fight--I couldn't fall on my face _before_ I got to the actual enemy. That was always a plus. But still, I had no battle tacts; I had absolutely no idea what to do.

"Stare into their eyes," Edward reminded me as the vampires began to come towards us in an eerie, almost trance-like state.

Flashback. I remembered that--those babies came out of their hypnotic states when their eyes stopped glowing, which happened when their eyes were deeply stared into. I could do that! That involved no hand-to-hand combat, so I was completely down.

I started staring the forwardmost vampires down until their eyes flickered and then turned back to the normal shade. I was surprised at the variety of colors--light blues, dark greens, hazels, even a few purples. Esme had said that the color of the eye depended on who they were bitten by; I hadn't realized there was so many 'starting' vampires, or whatever they were called.

So maybe they really weren't freaks of nature, but actually _supposed_ to be there. Ah. That would be cool.

The vampires started coming faster than I could stare them down, but luckily the un-hypnotized vampires were coming to our side as Edward's lips moved. I realized he was probably muttering quick explanations, and I was disappointed that I couldn't hear them, but I kept at my job nonetheless. The not-so-wide cave crushed everybody together, so after a while it was just like a mass of red-eyed vampires coming at me out of the darkness. If I were still in my human state, I probably would have wet my pants--it was _creepy_, all right? The shadow walls cast shadows over all the flawless faces around me, and I felt like I had come to an Evil Beautiful People convention (although I am pretty sure that that doesnt really exist. But hey).

To entertain myself as I kept staring, I made up an advertisement for the Evil Beautiful People convention: Come one, come all! Are you extremely pretty, and have a knack for wanting to take over the world? Then you've come to the right place! The Evil Beautiful People convention (EBPc) is being held on Saturday, November 16th at the Darkness Theater in Reject, Alaska. It's going to be extremely dark and consequently very safe--not that that means anything to any of you wink--and there will be _blood-red_ punches and other beverages served. In the spirit of a late Halloween we will have _human-head-shaped_ cookies. Here you can meet and mingle with other beautiful, villanous people like you.

I almost laughed out loud as I kept up the staring game. By now, we had about twenty vampires on our side, helping us stare down the slew of blood-suckers still coming at us.

I had just freed an Italian-looking kid with the prettiest eyes, and as soon as he had listened to Edward, he whispered (yes, even I could hear it. Aren't you proud?), "Hey! There are way too many, they're going to outnumber us even if we all try and stare, and I know a way out. Come on!"

Edward and I exchanged a glance--I then gave him a look that (I hope) said, _I at least want to live till our wedding day. I mean, honestly_.

We decided to follow the Italian boy.

But we knew that as soon as we turned around, we could easily be outrun and outnumbered. There would be nothing to stem the flow of vampires, and if the Italian boy was right about there being so many, we would be seriously doomed.

The third risk in one day--this was not a bad record. And I hadn't even fallen on my face even once! That was even better! I raised my arms in a silent cheer to myself, but then quickly lowered them when I saw Edward giving me a strange look.

Fighting the urge to laugh, I turned and saw about five of us already running in the direction we had come from. We were going to go in teams; and apparently, Edward and I were part of the last team.

But the teams were going fast, and our turn was fast approaching. "Go!" Someone screamed from behind us, further down the way we had come, and the voice echoed through the cave so that even if it wasn't a scream, it sounded like one.

As I whirled, I felt a whoosh of adrenaline running through my--body? I remembered a song I had heard once:

_Ain't no way they can stop me now, _

_Baby cuz I'm on my way I can feel my reign coming_

_It's the blood of a champion, pumping_

_Deep inside my veins; there's too much pride to be running._

_I'ma do what I can and more, even if my blood  
_

_My sweat and my tears don't mean nothing_

_It's the heart of a champion, in me._

I wasn't really sure how I could be feeling adrenaline, but it was definitely there, tickling the bottom of my stomach and urging me to go faster, faster--the cave walls zoomed by on either side, and I felt the wind, which had been almost nonexistant a couple of minutes ago, pushing my hair backwards, off my face.

The delicious feeling that I was in real danger, not just imaginary, pushed my limits and caused me to run even faster than Edward. I kept glancing back to make sure he was there, but then after a while I didn't need to. It was almost like I felt his presence there, that I would be able to feel if I lost him.

And then the Italian boy was talking away, so much closer now, and I couldn't see because the wind was forcing my eyes shut, but he was saying that I needed to stop soon, so soon, in a second, _now_.

I stopped so hard that I was sure I would go tumbling off into oblivion, but by some godsend I kept my balance. I looked around; besides Edward, two other girls, the Italian boy, and I, this part of the cave was empty. We were silent, and I felt the ground vibrating slightly, as if an elephant stampede was on its way.

It wasn't elephants.

Just vampires.

At this point, the latter were more dangerous to me, although that would have seemed ridiculous about a year ago.

The boy directed us on where to stand, and then he stood next to us, and we were all in a tight circle in the middle of the cave, our centerpoint a tiny, barely visible black dot that blended in so neatly with the dark, rough cave floor. I briefly wondered how the boy had found it, but then figured, why question it?

And then the boy was muttering something, and a spinning sensation spiraled through my stomach, my hair whipping around my face like I was standing in a giant tornado. For some reason, though, I didn't 'fall off,' because that's what it felt like: like I was being lifted on a platform that was also spinning at great speeds.

I forced my eyes open as the spinning became more intense. There they were--those horrid red-eyed vampires, grabbing at our ankles and trying to keep us down. Were we really lifting? I tried to see downwards, but my eyes stung terribly at some invisible force and I had to close them again.

And then my whole body froze, and I felt ice trickling through me as I realized one of them had successfully clenched onto my ankle.

I screamed bloody murder. "GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME!" I bellowed, over and over again, interrupting myself to scream some more. My stomach felt like a trillion butterflies iced over with poison and stingers and it was so not a pleasant feeling. My eyes were blurry and my head killed and I could feel how tight the hand was clenched on my ankle, although it wasn't really painful.

Okay. I want you to step back and picture this. Here you are, in a dark, lonely cave, somehow being lifted up to hopefully the ground above the cave where everything sweet and lovely is. And there are hundreds of deranged, laser-red-eyed vampires waving their perfect little arms and trying to catch you to pull you back into their hordes. And what happens if they do? You have no idea, but you're pretty sure it's not pleasant.

This, my friends, was the creepiest situation I had ever been in.

It felt like a cover off of a 70's rock album--such as Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin. Weird stuff.

Anywho, I tried to shake it, but then I was terrified of losing my balance and falling. It was like a whacked out version of a concert; me, of course, being center stage, but those vampires being the manical crowd that would eat me alive if I decided to do a little crowd-surfing.

I slowly lowered myself down, grabbed my shoe off my other leg, and tried to whack the vampire on the head--big mistake. Through all the pain in my eyes I could barely see and I ended up hitting the wrong vampire, and then letting go of my shoe. Oh, great. That would the last I would be seeing of that shoe.

And then Edward hissed at me to get up, and he leaned down himself, and then suddenly my ankle was free. What had he done? Asked them politely, in his old-English, to get the hell off of me?

Okay, okay, excuse my mean nature. I felt us whooshing upwards faster and faster now--I hadn't remembered the cave being this tall. But then my ground all but disappeared beneath me, and I felt myself falling, soaring through the air. Oh. I got it now. Great foolproof plan, Italian boy. We might as well break some bones in the process.

My spirits were rekindled when I felt myself hit the ground, but only in the weakest sense of the word. Italian boy, you are a genius! I heartily praised, dusting myself off and looking around. Of _course_ none of us would have gotten hurt in the hard landing.

I was in the middle of a grassy field; luckily, there were no flowers, or else I might have gone on another killing rampage or something. I felt thoroughly exhausted--apparently vampires _can_ get tired out. Who knew?--but again, I was refreshed when I saw everyone, everyone meaning the twenty-so vampires we had rescued and Edward, in various places around the field, which was surrounded on all sides by very, very tall trees.

"So no one would see us lift up in the air on an invisible magic carpet, and then fall. And then they wouldn't come look for us and either see no one there or nobody hurt and be thoroughly confused." The Italian boy had come up behind me. I looked over at him, and he grinned, apparently very happy with himself.

I smiled back. The boy did deserve some credit.

"So, shall we get out of here?" I asked, looking around for Edward.

I needn't have bothered. I felt a pair of strong arms encircle my waist from behind, and then I was being lifted up and spun around.

I squirmed in Edward's arms until I was facing him, and lightly kissed his cheek.

Everything was going to be okay.

* * *

**A/N: So how was that? Good? I'm sorry I'm not the best at those adventure bits--I was trying to make it seem sort of real, but I guess it just seemed kind of corny. Well, I hope not. Crossing my fingers...**

**Anyways, that song was "Heart of a Champion" by Nelly. It's REALLY good, and I totally recommend it for any of you that are into that sort of music. It definitely surprised me because I don't normally listen to Nelly's music, but this was just a really, really good song.**

**So reviewss please! Tell me how the adventure/exciting part went, and whether or not I should just stick to everything else. I really do plan on having one or two more chapters to finish, and I'm not sure if I'm going to make a sequel. Probably not, because I'm kind of losing interest, but--well, let me know.**

**Cheers!**

**That would be my poser-British way of saying good-bye because even though I really, really wish I were British, I am, sadly, not.**


	17. Chap 17: The End of the Beginning

White.

I closed my eyes, and the white flashed behind my eyelids.

"Are you ready?" An excited, girly voice asked behind me.

My eyes popped open, and I slowly turned. I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror. I felt heavy, weighed down, and I immediately hated the dress Alice and Rosalie and Esme had picked out for me.

But still, I couldn't really complain.

At least Charlie was here (although extremely reluctantly) and he had promised he wouldn't object.

I had to go through with this, for him.

I had figured that as soon as I was vampire-ized, all my self-doubt would disappear; like maybe I would stop thinking I wasn't perfect enough for Edward. Yeah, right. Like I could _ever_ be perfect enough for Edward.

Shaking the thoughts away, I smoothed my dress for the hundredth time and looked at Alice. I hadn't thought I would be this nervous, after everything—but somehow, I was.

Alice grinned. "There's no _way_ he can't adore you." She assured me, as if she could read my mind.

I closed my eyes, pressed them hard together, and then, when I opened them, I was ready.

Alice led me out into the sunshine, and then Charlie was standing beside me, and he was actually smiling.

The gathering was small—it was less than twenty people, just some extremely close friends and the Cullens. My mother was there, in the first pew, and I felt the tears rush forward but I couldn't shed them, and the pressure was building up inside me, and….

We began to walk, him and I.

I closed my eyes, and everything rushed by me. It wasn't exactly doubt for what I was doing, it was just….

I don't even know.

I remembered meeting Edward for the first time, and his hostility towards me; and then when we finally found each other; and in the clearing; and losing him; and getting him back; and...if there was ever a moment during my vampirehood that I wished I could cry, it was then. I needed to let all that pent-up emotion out, and I had no idea how.

So maybe that was the first, maybe only time in my life that I felt lost, scared, alone, unable to do anything, unable to work properly, unable to function. It was scary, and I wondered if everyone went through this on their wedding day.

I sure hoped so.

I got encouraging glances from all sides as I walked, and then the alter was getting closer, and closer, and there he was, Edward, looking serene and calm like always….

The only part I really remember of that day, of my actual wedding ceremony, was the walk. It brought out so many things in me that I never knew would ever surface again.

But then I tried not to think too deeply, and the rest of the ceremony was a blur. I accepted Edward, and he accepted me, and we exchanged rings, and we promised to be together for _eternity_.

Afterwards, we got some alone time before the reception, which was unusual but what Alice had insisted upon, and that was when my memory suddenly became crystal clear.

We were walking through the woods behind Edward's house; we had had the ceremony in his backyard, and they had told us to leave for a little bit while they cleaned up everything.

Edward was grinning broadly as he put his arm around me. "So?"

I wasn't sure how to react. I was kind of stunned. I mean, I knew that it was what I wanted and everything, but I was just….

And then my mind turned again. And before I knew what I was doing, I had clasped my arms around his neck and I was kissing him, and I didn't need to hold back, and this was it. This was what I had been waiting for.

I pulled back, breathless, as I felt my pleasure course through me.

"I love you," Edward whispered.

I realized that he had lifted me up off the ground, and I smiled. "I love you more."

He didn't try to argue. Instead, he kissed me again. And again. And again.

So much, in fact, that we fell backwards onto the forest floor, laughing and rolling around like little kids.

When we were called in for the reception, neither of us wanted to move. Edward was on the ground, facing up, and I was laying on top of him, my head resting on his chest. I couldn't hear a heartbeat, but suddenly, that didn't bother me. I didn't need blood in him to know he was alive. He was alive to me—and that was all I needed.

--

The reception was long and boring. I had to wear another formal dress, this time black and strappy, and frankly, I wasn't happy about it.

But I figured if it made my new sister-in-laws happy, I could deal.

After they had redone my makeup and hair, Edward and I got into the limo they had rented for us, to take us to the Wyndchester Hotel, the nicest hotel in Forks. Carlisle had rented out the entire place for us; well, the lobby, and reception room, and everything.

Our reception was a little bigger, but it still wasn't all that big. I mean, it wasn't invitation only. We had decided that anyone who wanted to come celebrate with us could—so the tables weren't assigned, and dinner was estimated on how many people we thought would come.

Mostly everyone came after dinner, but before, it was mostly just the crowd from the ceremony. A few people, like my school friends, came early, but then the rest of the town arrived later, after dinner.

Edward and I sat next to each other, of course, and he kept putting his hand on my knee under the table. I must say, I was surprised—after all, Edward was _the_ gentleman. But I figured after waiting so long for me to become his wife (at least, I hope he had been waiting a long time), I guess it was okay.

After dinner there was dancing. I looked up at Edward, and he laughed at my hopeless face. "You can avert danger now, remember?" he whispered to me as we got up.

Of course, we _had_ to do the first dance. Carlisle and Charlie _insisted_.

I felt like I was going to barf as he led me out onto the floor, which all the tables had been cleared from. I was going to trip, and I knew it. On my wedding day. In front of all these people….

I squeezed my eyes shut as the music began.

And then Edward was moving me around, and I tried to make myself as willowy as possible so that it wasn't hard for him to show me what to do. I didn't step on his feet even once! I could hardly believe my good fortune—and then the song ended, and I hadn't even realized it, because I was busy staring up at Edward and willing my feet to work properly.

"Bella," Edward whispered as he put his hand on my back and led me back towards our seats. "Would you like to leave?"

I looked up at him, remembering prom night. "Why?" I blinked rapidly, and then quickly added, "I mean, I want to. But can we?"

Edward smiled, and my non-existent heart flip-flopped. "Yes. It is your wedding day. You can do as you please."

My smile was even wider than his. We snuck out of there, snuck out of our own wedding reception, feeling sly and sneaky and quite the smooth couple.

And then we were outside, and the cool night air was washing across my face but I barely felt it because Edward had his arm wrapped tightly around my shoulders.

I rested my head on him as we walked, me still in my formal dress, him still in his tuxedo. I sighed contentedly.

And then Edward's eyes were shining in the darkness. "Bella. Do you want to see something? A secret something? I am not supposed to show you until tomorrow, but I want to show you now."

I raised an eyebrow. "Is this a present? Because you know I don't like—"

Edward rolled his eyes. "No, it is not a present. If it makes you happy, it is more for me than you. Now come on."

Happy again, I followed.

We didn't have to walk that far; apparently Edward had parked his car near the hotel earlier in case we wanted to leave early. I laughed inwardly at my—gulp—husband's smarts.

With Edward's hundred-mile-per-hour-plus driving, we reached our destination within minutes. And then he was opening the door for me, like a real gentleman, and I was getting out, careful to not get my dress caught on the door of the car.

And then we were walking up a driveway.

I looked around; I didn't really know where we were. We were still in Forks, because we hadn't driven that long, but there were trees all around, blocking everything; and as we walked closer to the end of the driveway, I could hear a stream or river gurgling along, maybe behind the…house?

I had never seen this house before. It was huge, and it looked newly built. It was brick-faced, but that was all I could tell in the near-darkness; the landscape looking perfect too.

We walked up a nice stone pathway, and while it looked bumpy, it was smooth to the walk; I didn't trip even once, even though I was wearing high heels. Come to think of it, I hadn't fallen at all, the entire day. Maybe being a vampire _could_ pay off.

And then Edward produced a key, and fit it in the lock of the front door, and opened the door, and flicked on a light.

I clutched his arm, nervously peeking around him into the house. "Um, Edward? Where are we?"

Edward smiled mysteriously, but would not answer.

The house was furnished with extremely modern furniture, and I immediately fell in love with it. Had Carlisle and Esme bought a new house? If this was it, I couldn't wait to visit them.

Still, I inched inside, feeling fluttery for some reason.

"Come on," Edward urged me, taking my hand and fairly pulling me into the foyer.

And then I gasped.

And then I couldn't speak.

_Welcome Home, Bella_ was spelled out on the foyer floor in flowers—in rose petals.

I gasped again, and Edward had to grab me to support me.

"Edward?" I finally asked in a squeaky, high-pitched voice, feeling a little woozy. It was all I could manage.

Edward nodded, and I could hear the smile in his voice. "This is our new house, Bells! Aren't you excited?"

"I—I—" My mouth opened and closed, and I felt like a giant carp out of water.

Edward put his arms around me, and my back was pressed against his chest, and he rested his chin on my shoulder. "It's all ours. Nobody else's. Just ours. It was Carlisle's present to us."

I squeezed my eyes shut, and opened them again, and the house was still there, and Edward was still there. "Oh, Edward!" I cried, and threw my arms around him. I wanted to cry, but of course, I couldn't. This was just so…so….

I couldn't believe it was happening. This further solidified the fact that we were married, and I was moving in with him. And…and….

I closed my eyes again, and kept them like that, inhaling Edward's heavenly scent.

Edward laughed. "Take it easy, Bella. Do you like it?"

This elicited a short nod from me, my face still buried in his tux.

He chuckled. "All right, then. It's home. Come on, now. Do you want a grand tour?"

I bit my lip, but then nodded and straightened up and allowed him to take my hand. He led me through each room—they were all huge!—and showed me everything. The bedrooms upstairs were furnished, and there were four of them; I didn't ask what we would need all the extra ones for because it would embarrass me to no end. The basement was fully furnished, and it had a sound system and 92" projection television and a pool table and ping-pong table and everything! Amazed, I figured that we would never have to leave, and never get bored. I voiced this to Edward, and he only laughed.

"Do you want to sleep here tonight?" He whispered in my ear, making me shiver.

I nodded.

He took my hand again, and together, we began to walk.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Sorry it took so long for this last chapter, I kind of forgot about this story for a while. I hope this kind of wraps it up :)**

**Anyways, thanks to all my wonderful reviewers, and an extra thanks because this is my first complete non-one-shot on fanfiction. **


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